Unexpected Love
by Skye-Casey
Summary: After the fight with Morgana at the end of season 3 Gwaine finds a woman in the woods that's been hurt after her village was burnt down by Cenred's men. When she's taken to Camelot she is reunited with someone she never thought she would see again. Follows into season 4.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, well I love Gwaine and I think he really deserved some real love in program and not just being known as the flirt. I'm not amazing at writing but I had this thought for a story and just wanted to put it up, so here it is. **

It happened so quickly it didn't really register what was going on me and my mother had been in our house in one of the villages on the outskirts of Camelot. My brother and father were outside in the village probably doing some heavy lifting it what they did to make money. No one really knew why my brother just seemed to be really strong. When they came they were Cenred's men they had his crest on the flags, and whatever people did it didn't make a difference they couldn't be killed. My brother had taught me how to handle a blade; he said that no one should be unprotected which would have helped other than the fact that we only owned two swords and my brother and father always had them. The village was on fire, I managed to escape through the back of my house without anyone noticing, when I turned around I saw my mother lying dead on floor an arrow had gone through her heart. Someone saw me because I felt an arrow go across my side slicing it open and another one landing in my thigh making it hard to walk. It was making it hard to walk, but I kept stumbling into the woods clutching my side hoping that I didn't lose too much blood. When the glow of the torches was gone I went back into the village to see if I could find any of my family alive. It didn't make it any better my mother was still in what was left of my house, not far away from my house I found my father he had been stabbed. He still had his sword in his hands which I took in case I came across anyone. I looked for a bit longer for my brother but I couldn't find him anywhere. I stumbled back into the woods trying to make my way to Camelot, but I could feel my eyes starting to get heavy and when I looked at my hand it was covered in blood and so was most of the side of my dress.

"Gaius, is she likely to wake up?" I heard a deep voice say to someone. What had happened to me was I still in the woods? Had I been moved? Was this heaven?

"I can't be sure, I mean from your information we don't even know how long she was unconscious in the woods for," another male voice said. This was definitely a voice of someone older and hopefully someone who could help me. I tried to move my fingers so I could see if I was still able to move.

"She's moving," another male voice said, this one was higher pitched and sounded happy about me being alive. A complete stranger that I had never met before, I opened my eyes to see three faces staring down at me and the light behind them was really bright. One of them was an elderly man like I expected he had white hair that was down to his shoulders, the next who seemed like he had the high pitched voice had brown short hair and the final had dark brown hair and obviously liked the rough guy look because he didn't shave, but it suited him and he was very handsome. The sort of person I could see my brother hanging around with. From the clothes he was wearing he looked like a knight of Camelot, God I'd been saved by a knight of Camelot. He had the armour and the red cape on something I had only seen a few times in my life but I still knew what it meant.

I sat up too quickly and felt my head start to kill, "that hurt," I mumbled lying straight back down.

"I wouldn't suggest sitting up to quickly child," the old man said walking over to me. "Take this it will help," he said holding a pink coloured potion to me. I took it off him at drank it quickly, it may have been a nice colour but it tasted disgusting.

"Can you tell us what happened?" the young man said he looked serious but yet still had a boyish smile on his face. The type I remembered my brother having when he was younger.

"Merlin, you could start with a less difficult, upsetting question. She was after all found unconscious in the woods. Sorry, why don't you start with what's your name?" the old man asked glaring at Merlin.

"Right my name, I'm Carmen, and to answer your question Cenred's men attacked are village. We couldn't kill them, and I got hit as you can see. I went back to see if my family were alright but I found my mother and father dead, and I couldn't find my brother. I headed to the woods and apparently it went downhill after that and I woke up here."

"Gaius that was over two weeks ago," the man I didn't know the name of said.

"It's a miracle Carmen that you're still alive. I'm Gaius the court physician," the old man said with a smile.

The court physician that means, "Citadel, the castle in Camelot," I mumbled out.

"Talking of being here Prince Arthur wants to see you to find out what happened."

"What? I can't meet the Prince," they all looked at me. "No offence I mean I have nothing against him, but I have nothing that is presentable to wear in front of our future King. I'm really grateful for what you've done but I'd feel better if I could just go home or whatever if left of my home."

"Sweetheart I don't think you've got a choice, Merlin go get Gwen," the man I still didn't know the name of said.

"Don't call me that," I snapped. I knew I shouldn't if he was a knight but my parents used to call me that and they were dead so I didn't really want a complete stranger calling me that.

"Is that really the way to talk to a knight of Camelot?" he smirked looking at me. Luckily Merlin came in with a girl behind him. She had long black curly hair and dark skin and a smile on her face. She was also carrying a dress which could only mean it was meant for me.

"Hi, I'm Gwen," the girl said walking it.

"Carmen," I replied with a smile. She pulled my hand towards the door that went off the end of the room.

"Why don't you go tell Arthur that we'll be there soon," she said to the others before shutting the door behind us.

"I can't talk to the Prince what am I meant to say?" I asked sitting down the door looking at the dress. It was beautiful it had a pink bodice almost like a corset with lighter pink sleeves and skirt. "And I can't wear that," I pointed at it; it was one of the most beautiful dresses I had ever seen. No one would wear a dress of that colour back home; I mean it would never stay that colour for long.

"You'll be fine Prince Arthur is really nice, he just wants to know what happened to you. No one knew what happened when Gwaine brought you in. Gaius said it would be best if people didn't visit you, so all we had was what Merlin came out with every day and today has been the first day that anything had changed."

"Gwaine? Who's Gwaine?" I asked curiously I had a feeling that I wasn't going to like the answer. I had a feeling it was going to be the man I had been rude to outside.

"The man out there he found you and took you straight to Gaius," she replied. "Now turn around." She helped me change into the dress and compose myself, "you look beautiful," she said as she was brushing through my light brown hair, that had blonde highlights due to being in the sun, it was also wavy. "I'd love to have hair like yours."

"Thanks," I replied with a smile, "and thank you for helping me. I promise I'll get you your dress back."

"Don't worry it suits you, come on we should get out there before someone comes in." When we went outside Merlin, Gaius and Gwaine were still sat out there, they seemed to have been talking about something but they stopped when we walked back out. Gwaine's mouth had dropped open when he saw me in the dress, which I hated to admit but it made me blush. It was starting to get a bit awkward.

"Can we go before I lose my nerve and leave?" I asked looking at the three of them.

"Come on then, my lady," Gwaine said offering me his arm, which I took.

"I hear that my thanks should go to you for me being alive today," I said looking up at him as we walked towards wherever we were meant to be going. I was starting to get nervous; I mean what was I meant to be saying to the Prince.

"You've got nothing to worry about Arthur, he will listen to you and this is coming from a man who used to hate nobles," he said apparently noticing how worried I had become.

"He speaks the truth and he has saved Arthur's life twice," Merlin said coming up behind us.

"Who's going to be in there?" I asked looking at Merlin as we stopped outside a large door, which sort of implied that there was going to be a lot of people in there.

"Umm . . . the three of us, the other main knights, Prince Arthur and probably his uncle," Merlin replied smiling.

"What?" I snapped as the door opened. Prince Arthur was stood near the throne with a man with black hair stood near him, whom I assumed to be his uncle and there was a group of knights in the corner who didn't seem to turn around as I walked towards the front. Gwen, Gaius and Merlin walked towards the front with me while Gwaine walked towards the guards stood in the corner who weren't paying attention.

"Your majesty," I said curtsying when I got to the front.

"Yes, the women Gwaine rescued from the woods," Prince Arthur replied looking at me up and down. He looked between me and Gwen like I he knew I was wearing one of her dresses.

"Yes, I am. My names," I started.

"Carmen?" I turned and saw my brother stood in a knight's uniform on in the corner with the rest of the knights.

**Please let me know what you think, any reviews are loved. **

**Skye-Casey x**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, hope people enjoyed the first chapter and I would like to thank my best friend Megan-Ruth for being the comment, and say I put this chapter up as a going away present to you, as your leaving me for Switzerland. I'd also like to thank niki jinx for being the first review from someone I don't know. It made my day when I read. Anyway I hope you enjoy and please review. This ones longer than the last. **

"Percival?" I questioned shocked. My brother alive, when he opened his arms, I didn't care that there were other people in the room. I ran up to him and put my arms around his neck in a hug, he did what he always did when I hadn't seen him in more than a day he picked me up and span me round making me giggles. I heard someone clearing their throat behind, he put me down and I turned around.

"Percival?" Prince Arthur questioned looking between the two of us.

"Sorry Sire, this is Carmen my little sister," Percival said keeping hold of my hand.

"The sister that you couldn't find?" Another one of the knights said he looked a lot like Gwaine, but was more shaved.

"That would be her," he said kissing me on the top of the head. I was really short compared to him; I mean I didn't even reach his shoulders.

"I'm happy for the two of you," the Prince said smiling at the two of us. Percival pulled me out the door, whilst the rest of the people there watched us go. We sat on the steps of the courtyard of the castle; he kept his arm around me like he thought I'd disappear.

"So what happened? You became a knight like you always wanted to do since you were little," I said looking up at him.

"Umm . . . yes. I'm sorry Carmen I should have spent longer looking for you, but I found mother and father and you weren't anywhere, so I left the village and found Lancelot who you may have noticed in there and well Merlin had sent a message to him that him and Arthur needed help, so I went with him. I needed to help I don't know if it was for revenge for what Cenred's men had done to mother and father and what I assumed you or because I knew it was the right thing to do but I had to. And well Arthur knighted four of us for putting our lives on the line for him," he said looking at the floor like he was upset with himself for leaving me.

"Percival, don't worry about it you did what you felt right. I did the same as you I thought you were dead I made my way straight here," he raise an eyebrow at me. "Well I was until I collapsed in the woods, and Sir Gwaine found me."

"And you seem to have made a good impression with everyone," he smiled kissing me on the heads.

"But what am I meant to do now, there's nothing left of the village. I have nowhere to live, no work and I no longer no anyone. I mean other than you, but you're a knight and you'll be off all the time doing knighty things," I replied starting to think practically something that I had never had to done before. I mean I had a mother and father for that and if they weren't present my big brother would be there.

"Knighty things?" he questioned chuckling to himself. "Let me talk to Arthur see if he can help you out and you can stay in my chambers until then."

"What do I do till then?" I questioned.

"Percival, Arthur wants you training," Merlin came out the front door of the castle.

"I'm sure Merlin can keep you company till then," Percival replied kissing me on top of the head before jogging off.

"Sorry about that my brother had been known too dumb me on other people, but I promise I can be a very helpful person or you can just point me in the direction of his chambers till he comes back," I said getting up and looking up at Merlin.

"The company would be nice, but I should warn you that I'm Arthur's servant and he gets me to do the worst things," he replied.

"I've always been good at the whole tidying things. I mean I spent the last twenty two years living with him," I said pointing in the direction that my brother had just left in, which caused Merlin too laugh.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "sorry it's just I've been the in knights chambers they aren't good. Although his have always been the nicest, but no one will be able to match the state of Gwaine," he replied, something like that didn't sound shocking. Gwaine didn't look like the tidiest of people.

"So what are we doing?" I asked following him over to where it looked like the men were training. This could not be a good thing.

"I'm not sure," he said with a smile. "That is why we are going over there to talk to Arthur," he pointed in the direction to which the knights that had been in the crown room when I had to speak to Arthur.

"You talk about Arthur like your close friends?" I questioned.

"Well, I see it that way, but then I sometimes wonder if he sees it that way," Merlin replied with a sad smile, but he still seemed to always have one on his face. It was really cute.

"Personally I think he'd be lucky to have a friend like you," he raised an eyebrow at me. "You've been nothing but nice to me and you can't know more than about five things about me, so yeah I think he'd be lucky to have a friend like you."

"Thank you," he replied with a smile.

"MERLIN!" someone shouted from the tent next to the training field. Merlin didn't look as a smiley he did whilst we had been walking over here.

"And that would be my work for the day beginning," he smiled.

"MERLIN!" the Prince shouted again.

"Okay, I'm going to run over there now, but feel free to take your time," Merlin said jogging over to Arthur. When he reached him he didn't seem to be in a good mood, it looked like he was having a go at Merlin? Once Prince Arthur was done Merlin came jogging back over to me.

"Well he's decided to use me for demonstration today, because I may have been running a bit late today but you're welcome to come and watch," Merlin said.

"Demonstration? Can you actually use a sword?" I said looking at him up and down. I wasn't being rude but it seriously looked like he wasn't the type of man that was able to use a sword.

"You have no idea," he replied as we reached the knights and the Prince.

"Maybe this is a bad idea," I said as we got closer to them and all the knights were looking at me, especially Gwaine he had a big smirk on his face. I had a feeling he wasn't going to let me forget the fact he saved my life.

"Come on you'll be fine," Merlin said pulling my arm over to the knights.

"Hands of my little sister Merlin," Percival said, as soon as we were in hearing distance and he could see that Merlin had my arm. Merlin dropped his arms so quickly it was unbelievable.

"Sorry," Merlin said raising his hands and walking over to Arthur who was a little bit further away than the knights were.

"Seriously he was pulling my arm? I know you have the whole over protective big brother thing going on and you always have, but wasn't that a little far," I snapped as soon as Merlin left.

"Carmen you don't see how guys look at you and you'll never understand you're not a big brother," he snapped back.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied I'd never really thought a lot about how men look at me I mean Percival was my big brother. That by itself would scare any man away.

"Fine outside opinion, Elyan my sister's pretty isn't she?" Percival questioned looking at a dark skinned man that had black hair. He looked like he could be Gwen's brother but I would just be guessing.

"I don't think answering that is good idea, as I would be worried about what your reaction would be," Elyan replied making the other knights life. Gwaine gave me a wink behind my brother's back, which made me blush. I was just hoping my brother didn't see it.

"Will someone lend me their sword so I can kill him?" I asked looking at the other four knights. It made them all look at each other at the thought of a girl being able to use a sword. "Before any of you comment, do you really think I'd be unable to use a sword when I had him as an older brother?" they all looked at each other realising that I was probably good with one.

"Men, did you plan on doing any training today?" someone said from behind me. I turned around and saw Prince Arthur stood behind me, which I'm not going to lie sort of scared me. I never really thought I'd meet a member of our royal family, let alone being that close to them. "Carmen, right?" the Prince addressed me.

"Yes, sorry I shouldn't be here. It's just I was going to help Merlin for the day until I can myself work somewhere and well somewhere to live, my lord," I replied walking over to Merlin.

"Wait Carmen," I spun around shocked that he hadn't told me to just go home. "If you help Merlin for the day, I'll see if I can find some work for you within the Castle," he said with a smile.

"Thank you," I said with a massive smile on my face.

"And if you help Merlin today, some of the jobs might actually be done properly," he replied. I curtsied and walked off after Merlin.

"If that's how he treats people that he sees as friends shouldn't I fear for the people he doesn't like?" I asked Merlin as we walked back into the Castle.

"I don't know how to explain Arthur; he just has a lot on his mind at the moment. Everything with Morgana really had his toll on his father, so Arthur's is just trying to hold everything together," Merlin replied. "Not to mention don't insult him I did that my first day and I spent the evening in the dungeons and the next day in the stock," I couldn't help but laugh at that idea.

"Sorry," I said trying to keep a straight face but the idea of people throwing fruit and vegetables that had gone off at Merlin did make me laugh. "So umm . . . what are we actually doing today?" I asked changing to topic of conversation.

"Tidying Arthurs room, bear in mind I'm not as bad at my job as Arthur makes me out to be he is just really messy," Merlin said as we walked through some doors into a room, that was well bigger than my parents' house and all it mainly had was the basic things any bedroom had in and on top of that there was a desk and a table, which only had two chairs but looked like it could fit about six people around. Merlin had also been right it was messy it had clothes everywhere, an unfinished breakfast at the table, which looked more than I was used to eating in a day.

"Yeah that was about my reaction when I saw it," Merlin said looking at my face. "It's about the same sizes as the house I grew up in."

"Where did you grow up?" I asked picking up the clothes that were everywhere like Merlin and putting them in a basic.

"Ealdor, it's not actually in Camelot, it's in Cenred's kingdom," he replied. I couldn't say that I knew a lot about his kingdom other than he tried to take over Camelot with an immortal army.

"So why did you leave?" I asked, being nosy was a way to make friends in a new place.

"Oh, my mother thought I could be helpful to Gaius they're umm . . . old friends, and well I saved Arthur's life, so the King thought being his personal servant would be a nice reward," he said. The story about why he moved here didn't seem completely true but I wasn't going to say he was lying.

"How is that a reward?" I questioned, not being able to work out how that worked in my own head.

"You know what I couldn't work that out then and well, I'm still trying to work it out," he said holding a shirt up with a rip in. "I know it's bad to ask but how are you sewing kills, because mine are terrible and the shirts normally end up worse than when they started."

"I can definitely sew; I've done it a lot in my life. If you get me a needle a thread I can start it now," I replied taking the shirt out of his hands. I was guessing that it had happened in training when someone managed to get him, although my brother used to make it sound like Prince Arthur was invincible and that no one could ever beat him. I should probably remind myself not to point out how much my brother used to like worship Prince Arthur, even when we were from a village when people only ever heard gossip on what was going on in Camelot. My brother must truly feel like he's living the dream now, he had everything he ever dreamed of, but I'm pretty sure in these dreams mother and father was there. I think they would be happy with everything that he had managed to achieve.

"There you go," Merlin said handing me a needle and thread. Once he saw me start it he got back on with his work. It made me think back to when me and my mother would sit and do it at home. In our village me and my mother were always the ones that people in the village would go to if they needed something sewing up, we always got told that we were the best around. Maybe I'd be able to get work doing something like that. I left that thought on the side lines and thought I would wait to see what the Prince could get me in the Castle, as I would feel a lot better staying somewhere closer to Percival.

"All done," I said getting rid of the bit of thread at the end of it. I held it up and was pleased with what I had done.

"Wow, you are good at it," he replied taking it off me. "And you've probably saved me from being killed for ruining another one of his shirts."

"Well I'm happy to help if you ever need anything sown up, it's what me and my mother used to do for a living back home," I replied I felt tears running down my face.

"Carmen, I didn't mean to make you cry sorry," he rambled standing in front of me. I couldn't help it I needed a hug, so I pulled him into one, which after a while he hugged me back. I think he worried about what Percival would say about him hugging or more what physical damage my brother could do to him.

"Making her cry and hugging her, what would Percival say if he could see you now," someone said from the door. Merlin jumped away as soon as he heard the voice, I turned and saw Gwaine standing there. I had never seen someone look that scared in a very long time.

"Are you really that scared of my brother?" I questioned Merlin ignoring the fact that Gwaine was stood at the door.

"Well . . . umm . . . have you seen him," Merlin said looking very stiff. It caused Gwaine to laugh.

"And Arthur's looking for you Merlin," Gwaine said. Merlin looked worried at thought to. "He wants you there too Princess," Gwaine added winking at me.

"Just imagine what my brother would do if he heard you call me a Princess," I said glaring at him.

"He'd agree with what I said. Oh and I agree with your brother your beautiful," he replied. I choose to ignore that comment and followed Merlin.

"You won't mention the whole you crying and me hugging you to your brother will you?" Merlin asked, looking nervous.

"You really shouldn't be scared of him, just think of him as a big teddy bear," I replied smiling about the amount of times that one of his hugs had just made the world feel like a better place. Merlin started laughing to himself because of what I had seen. "Okay how's this, I won't mention me crying and you giving me hug, although none of it was your fault and you won't mention the fact I described him as a big teddy?" he nodded in agreement, "as I think that will probably annoy him more that I said something like that about him."

"Finally," the Prince said as we walked into the courtroom. I hoped that wasn't aimed at me, because Merlin's story on what happened when he first meet the Prince was coming into my head. "Merlin where have you been, it doesn't take that long to tidy my room."

"Sire, have you seen it recently?" Merlin replied. I was shocked that Merlin said something like that to the Prince; I know he said they had a jokey relationship but wasn't saying something like that to the Prince wrong and probably punishable by death.

I was wrong though because all Arthur did was glare at him. I did look around the room and notice that there wasn't anyone in here but the three of us, so I suppose it wasn't like he was showing him up in public. "Merlin go muck out the stables," Merlin's jaw dropped at that. I found it funny until I remembered that I said I was going to help him throughout the day.

"But," Merlin said.

"It will give you the chance to think about what you're saying when you talk to me," Arthur had a smile on his face as Merlin left. "Carmen, I have found a job that you can do, you're brother said you're used to looking after to people," I nodded my head. "And cleaning up after them and doing odd jobs for them doesn't bother you," I nodded my head in agreement. "Well in the guard quarters the maids and servants could do with some help."

"Thank you, my lord," I replied with a smile.

"Someone is on their way to show you where you'll be staying," he said. A woman with dark brown hair that was turning grey due to old age came in curtsying at the Prince, and then pulling me out after her. "One more thing Carmen," the maid quickly let go as we turned around. "Guinevere has offered you some of her old dresses, because you lost everything in the fire. She said she would find you later today."

"Thank you," I replied and then the women kept pulling me.

**Thank you for reading. Any reviews are truly loved and I'd love to know what people think about it. **

**Skye-Casey x**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, thank you to the people that have are following this or have put it as a favourite, it really does mean a lot to me. I'm sorry I haven't uploaded in ages I've been really busy with college stuff. So I hope you enjoy. **

She didn't stop until we got to the area of the Castle that I assumed were for the knight's quarters, "you can start with that one, the bed needs changing and the clothes tidied and readied to be washed," she said pushing me through the door.

"That hurt," I said rubbing my arm. The door was shut by the time I said it, so she couldn't hear what I said. I looked around the room and saw that it was rather big, not nearly as big as Arthur's was and there wasn't as much in it, but it was still pretty big. And well it was even messier than Arthur's had been which wasn't good for me. I moved everything off the bed and placed it on a small table, so I could actually make it. I was good at making beds, well I was I didn't know how they would be judged compared to what I did back home, but then again they were for men and men didn't really care as long as they could still sleep in it. When I was finished with the bed I moved on to tidying the actual room, which I had a feeling might take a while.

The door to the room opened when I was nearly done which scared me half to death, I turned around and saw Gwaine. It then clicked with me that I should have paid more attention to Merlin he had told me that Gwaine's room was the messiest. He hadn't noticed it was me, so I thought I could ignore him and he wouldn't notice it was me. "Princess, are you cleaning my room?" he said with a smirk.

"Shut up, I didn't know it was yours. I would have thought twice before I got pushed in here before I started," I replied.

"Aww now is that any way to be talking to a knight, especially one that saved your life?" he asked.

"Exactly what I was about to say," we both turned our heads and saw the women who had dragged me here.

"Not her again," I mumbled to myself, causing Gwaine to chuckle.

"You should not speak to a knight like that," the women glared at me. "I'm sorry Sir Gwaine I'll make sure she isn't in the room next time you're here," the women said curtsying at him.

"No don't worry about it, let her keep going with the tidying," Gwaine said trying not to laugh at her.

"We'll talk about this later," the women looked at me and then left the room. When she had left Gwaine did start laughing. I ignored his laughing and decided to keep going with the tidying, guessing the quicker I got it over with the quicker she's have a go at me and then it could all be over.

"If I lose my job because of you, I will not be happy," I snapped at him.

"If you tell her you have a knight for a brother she'd be a lot nicer to you, and probably wouldn't tell you what to do," Gwaine replied.

"I don't want special treatment because Percival is my brother I just want to be the same as everyone else."

"Fine I'll be quiet while you finish," he replied. He kept to his word and didn't say anything until I'd finished his room. "Now wasn't that fun, and I'll feel so much better knowing that when I make a mess it will be you that tidies it up," I chose to ignore his comments. "And by the way even if you don't tell them, when they do find out Percival's your brother they will treat you better."

"Goodnight Sir Gwaine," I said with a mocking smile. "Have fun doing whatever knighty things you have planned to do."

I walked towards the door, "Princess, by the way what's a knighty thing to do." I ignored him, and picked up the basket of dirty clothes and left the room, even after the door had shut I could still her him chuckling to himself.

"Carmen," I heard the women screech as I walked into the servant area to sort out the clothes. "You are not allowed to talk to knights like. Can you imagine what would have happened if he would have told the King? We don't mean anything to anyone," the women snapped. I thought she was going to keep going but there was a knock at the door so I was hoping she could change the direction of her anger hopefully away from me. Her face changed into a nice expression, "yes Gwen, what can I do for you today?" she asked with a smile.

"Can I borrow Carmen? We were going to get some clothes sorted out for her," Gwen replied pointing at me.

"Where are you going to get some from her? I'm surprised if she has any family," the women mumbled to herself. I was a bit shocked at how rude she was being to me, when I could obviously hear what she was saying.

"You do realise who she is, Thea?" Gwen replied obviously knowing her names.

"Someone who had no one and has been lumped on me," she replied.

"She's a knight's sister like me," Gwen replied, so I was right about what she was related to. Thea lifted an eyebrow trying to work out whether Gwen was telling the truth, "Percival? You know the really tall muscular one? That a lot of people are scared of?" The women seemed to go into a bit of shocking thinking about everything she had just said to me.

"Why does everyone seem to think my brothers scary?" I questioned, it still didn't make sense to me. I mean sure he was really tall and well had a lot of muscle but he was still my big brother, maybe it was because I could remember what he used to look like before that happened.

"Umm . . . I suppose people just look at him and judge him, whereas he's your brother so you grew up with him," Gwen said steering me out of the Castle and down into the lower town.

"You actually have a house here?" I asked thinking before I actually spoke.

"Yeah, in the lower part of town, you look surprised," she questioned me.

"Oh, it's just now I'm going to be living in the servant chambers of the Castle, I'll probably find myself missing the idea of having a house to live in, even though there was never anything special about it," I replied, as she opened the door to a small house. When we got inside it had about the same as our house, it may have been a little bit smaller but by barely anything. "Now this reminds me of home," I said running my hand over the dining room table.

"Feel free to sit down and make yourself at home, I'll be back in a second with the dresses," she said walking towards the back of the house. I sat down at the table and just looked around, just noticing how similar it was to the house I used to live in. The main difference was just really the noise that could be heard from outside, I suppose that was be the main disadvantage to living within central Camelot.

"Here you go," Gwen said coming back out with three dresses. They all looked similar to the pink one that I had on at the moment, they were just all different colours. There was a purple one, a bluey green one and light blue one.

"They're beautiful, I can't take these off you," I said when she tried to hand them over.

"Carmen don't worry, I'm happy to help and I don't even wear then anymore," she replied putting them on the table in front of me. She also handed me a pair of shoes that would go with them.

"Thank you," I said standing up and pulling her into a hug. "I should probably go, I thing Thea might murder me when I get back."

"Yeah, I heard that it was sort of hard to miss. What exactly happened?" Gwen asked.

"Oh, well she pushed me into a room to tidy, and it turned out to be Gwaine's room. He started teasing me so I did it back and then he made a joking comment about that was no way to talk to a knight and well that was the bit of the conversation that Thea heard," I said.

"The best thing you can remember to do with Thea is not to question anything that she tells you to do, just do it," Gwen said. "Oh, I have something else for you," she turned around and walked back to the back of her house. She came out with a deep red dress that had long sleeves and flared out at the end. "Before you comment this one is from your brother and not from me," I didn't know what to say it was probably the most beautiful dresses I had ever seen.

"Wow," was all I had to say to it. This time last month I could even imagine owning a dress like this, any of the dresses. I was used to just wear plain ones, the ones of dull colours that had been made by my mother.

"Having a knight for a brother has its perks doesn't it?" she questioned. "Oh, you don't know Elyan's my brother, without him I don't think I would have been able to afford to keep living here."

"Elyan's your brother?" she nodded her head. "I meet him earlier when he was at training my brother was discussing the way that men look at him, and well your brother wouldn't give him an answer worried about what my brother might do."

"Your brothers very protective isn't he?" Gwen asked.

"You have no idea," I mumbled as a reply thinking back to Henry.

"Do tell?" Gwen said with a friendly smile on her face.

"There was a man before about a year ago and well it didn't end well, when Percival found out about it," I replied.

"Do I want to know what happened with the man?" Gwen asked with a small smile on her face.

"Well I can't be a hundred per cent sure but from what I heard his face never looked the same again," I said causing Gwen to laugh. "But I never saw him again after it, he did move away really quickly. What about you?"

"What about me?" she asked.

"Any lucky man in your life," I said with a smile on my face.

"That's complicated," she replied with a smile that looked both happy and sad at the same time.

"Come on Gwen, whatever you tell me won't leave this room, I promise," I said hoping to convince her to tell me. I was too nosy for my own good, that and I actually did want to make a friend.

"Okay, I've had a thing for Arthur for a long time," she said quietly.

"As in?" I started.

"The Prince yes, we've always had a complicated relationship because I'm a servant and he's the future king. Morgana set us up once, and well when the king found out he nearly had me killed for sorcery." She replied.

"Sorcery? Is it really that had for him to accept that Arthur just fell for you?" I questioned.

"Apparently so, but we should get back it's nearly dinner time at the Castle and I'm sure Thea will make you be the one today that makes sure all the knights are fed, and I need to go see to the king," she changed topic and handed me the dresses.

"Thank you again for the dresses," I smiled giving her a hug, "and I hope in time we can become friends. That's if I don't lose my job because of Thea."

"Carmen, we are friends. Do you think I give my dresses to people I don't like," she smiled back. I had a friend I was so happy. "And maybe you should try and stay away from Thea," she laughed. For the rest of the journey we talked like two girls that had been friends for a long time. "I'll see you later, come by anytime you want," she said as she walked off in a different direction. Bless her she had walked me right to the guards quarters.

"Thank you," I replied smiling at her and walking up the stairs, which didn't go well as I missed a step because I couldn't see the floor behind. I was waiting for the pain of falling to the floor but it never came, someone had caught me.

"You alright Princess?" it had to be Gwaine didn't it. Right now I would rather have taken my chances on falling to the ground and hurting myself.

"Yes," I said turning around to face him putting a sweet smile on my face. "Thank you for helping me."

"Don't worry about it," he replied with the smirk that almost always seemed to be on my face. "Do you need some help?"

"I should be good, but thank you," I said hurrying off before I could start arguing with him.

"There you are its dinner time and I need people to feed the knights," Thea came from around the corner. "Ahh let me show you to your room first and then you can start," she started walking up a small flight of stairs which had a few rooms at the top at it. "Okay, this one is for you," the room wasn't big, it had two beds one on either side of the room and one wardrobe in the middle they had two different sections. "You'll be sharing with Kate; she's about the same age as you I'm sure you'll get on fine. Put the dresses away so we don't get complaining knights walking around." I was guessing she was only being nice to me now, because she knew who my brother was and I didn't really want her to go back to not liking me so I quickly hung them up. "Let's go then," she quickly left the room and I walked trying to keep up with her into a room that had a table full of plates of food on, along with about five servants including me. "You can start with Gwaine's he seems to have taken a liking to you."

"Umm . . . but," she walked away before I could actually say anything to her.

A different servant the one that looked like she was the cook handed me the plate, "he's in his room," she said. I had a feeling this was going to be a long night, I took the path to the only room I had actually been in, in this part of the castle.

This time I decided to use my initiative before I went in, so I knocked on the door. I mean he would know that it was someone with his dinner I mean they must give it to him the same time every day. What was the worst that could happen?

"Come in," he replied straight away, which was a good sign as it was nothing would probably get me in trouble. When I walked around the corner Gwaine was stood there without a top on, and I knew he really annoyed me but I couldn't deny that he looked nice without a top.

"Umm . . . I've got your dinner," I said trying to ignore the fact he didn't have a top on, and well the stating the obvious that he looked seriously nice without it on.

"Thank you, so did you survive Thea and you being rude to knights," he asked. Had he not even thought about the fact that he without a shirt on was distracting?

"Umm . . . yeah, Gwen turned up and pointed out that my brother was a knight and she's being surprisingly nice to me since then," I replied.

"I told you that would work," he said with his smirk back on his face. "Are you going to put the food down?" he pointed at the plate that was still in my hands.

"Yeah, I should go back, I'm sure Thea's got other things for me to do," I replied turning around and walking back out the door.

"Night Princess," Gwaine said, when I turned around he was finally putting a shirt on was he trying to get to me.

"Night," I replied leaving the room, hoping the blush on my face had gone away.

"There's one plate left," Thea said handing me two, one had a lot less on than the other. "It's for your brother, and he requested your presence when he ate, so I put the dinner you'd get together." She couldn't possibly being this nice to me because she knew I had a knight for a brother. "When you've finished bring the plates to the kitchen, I'm sure you can work out where they are." What? How was I meant to find them? Like she normally did she walked off before I could point it out to you.

"Your brother's room next to Sir Gwaine's," she said popping her head around the door before walking off again. Why did I think that this day was going to end badly?

I walked out the general guard servant area and knocked on my brother's door. "Come in," he replied, at least with him I knew he wouldn't let anyone in if he wasn't completely dressed.

"Hi," I said putting the putting the two plates on the table, which my other was sat at, but it wasn't just him all the knights that had been at the training ground were also there. And there was silence as soon as they heard my voice. "Oh, Thea said you wanted me here, but I can go," I said picking my plate up again.

"Carmen, I did want you here. I thought you might feel better if you got to know people here," Percival said walking over to me and putting my plate back, and then pulling me into a hug and kissing me on the top of my head.

"Sorry, am I late," Gwaine's voice said from behind me. Why did he have to be everywhere that I went? His smirk came back onto his face when he saw I was stood by the table.

"Yeah, apparently I'm making friends," I said turning around giving him a sweet innocent smile.

"Princess we've been through how you should talk to knights, we wouldn't want Thea to walk in now would we," he replied. Why was it that whenever we argued I always seemed to lose? The rest of the knights including my brother were just looking between the two of us. This wasn't going to end well, so I left Gwaine to sort it out and I sat down, and started nibbling on the bread that I had on my plate.

When he didn't reply things started to get awkward, so I stopped eating. "And I did learn don't be rude to a knight in front of Thea," I smiled at him.

"Wait, so how do you two know each other?" the one I knew was Gwen's brother asked.

"Oh, I'm the nice person that rescued her from the woods, and I've had nothing but rudeness since then," Gwaine replied.

"Well I definitely owe you a lot for that," Percival said doing the manly gesture of patting him on the back. "And that's just Carmen she doesn't like to lose arguments, do you Carmen?" my brother smiled at me. I ignored him and went back to eating.

By the end of the evening I had got to know all the knights, and their names. They were all really nice, I also learnt that Leon was the only one that actually had noble blood, which had made me smile at the fact, because it meant technically Gwaine was no better than I was. I was still technically a servant to them and they were knights, so to everyone else they were better to me, but I'd never been one that went along with what everyone else said. If I was working in the Castle with people I had to show respect to I should probably work on it.

"I should go, I need sleep," I said standing up. Picking the two plates up and walking towards the door. All the nights said their byes; just before I left I remember I was meant to be going to the kitchens. "Oh, can someone point me in the direction of the kitchen?"

"Come on Carmen I'll show you," my brother said getting up and walking over to me, "everyone out." All the knights started walking towards their rooms which I was guessing I would soon learn all about them, and where their rooms were.

"Oh, thank you for the dress. It is honestly the nicest one I think I've ever seen," I said looking up to my brother.

"Gwen picked it out, and I'm glad you liked it," he replied with a smile on his face. We didn't talk the rest of the journey to the kitchen the two of us seemed to be okay with staying in silence without it being awkward. When we got to the kitchens Percival waited outside just because we thought it would be a bit odd if there was a knight in there. There was a massive pile of dirty dishes on the side, which I assumed meant that they normally wash up in the morning. Percival walked me as far to the entrance to the servant's quarters, because again we thought it would be odd if a knight came into them.

"I guess I'll see you at some point tomorrow," I said turning and leaning up and kissing him on the cheek, but he still he had to bend down because he was so much taller than me.

"Night," he replied kissing me on the top of the head, which was where he always kissed me. It used to be a shock if he kissed me on anything but the top of my head

"Night," I turned and made my way up the stairs to my room, and waiting to make the person I was about to start sharing a room with. When I walked into the room, she was sat on her bed and didn't seem to actually be doing anything other than sitting there.

"Umm . . . hi," I said not knowing what to say to someone I'd just met. "I'm Carmen," I added with a smile on my face.

"Hi, I'm Kate, well its Katherine, but no one calls me it but my parents," she replied with a smile. She was pretty she had brown eyes, with long dark brown curly hair.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" she hadn't stopped and it was starting to creep my out.

"Oh, sorry it's just the servants gossip a lot and well you're the new gossip around, so all I know is what other servants have been saying," she replied. That did not make me feel good.

"What have they been saying about me?" I asked curiously and worried that it was probably bad.

"Well, all they've got is that you've appeared out of nowhere, a knight as a brother who a lot people are scared of and you don't seem to have a problem with titles when it comes to talking to knights," she replied.

"I'm never going to live down how Thea heard me talking to Gwaine," I muttered to myself.

"Unfortunately not, I mean all the servants know that him, and all of the Princes main men other than Sir Leon aren't of noble blood, but we still wouldn't dare talk to them like you did," she said.

"I wasn't trying to be rude Gwaine," she gave me a look. "Fine Sir Gwaine just always gets on my nerve."

"Thea will use that; she'll probably make you like his own personal servant. Whereas she just gives the rest of us anyone," she said with a smirk.

"Why can't she give me my brother for that?" I asked more to myself but Kate still answered.

"Because you get used to Thea, but she enjoys making us put in positions we don't like. Unluckily for you she already knows what yours is and you've only been here for a day."

"It gets worse, promise not to spread this as gossip," she nodded her head in agreement whether she did would show whether she was really a friend or not. "He saved my life," I whispered the last bit not really wanting to tell her.

"Your knight in shining armour then," Kate said causing us both to burst out laughing.

"WILL YOU TWO BE QUIET," we heard Thea scream from outside the door. We both tried to not to laugh at her reaction to our talking.

"We should probably get some sleep, a group of knights are going on patrol to look for Lady Morgana which means we'll get woken really early to sort out everything for them," Kate said getting into her bed.

"Okay, just let me get changed," I replied. I wasn't actually sure to what I was going to where to sleep, because I didn't actually have anything for that. I looked in my wardrobe and saw a clean version of everything that I had been brought to Camelot in, so I grabbed the underdress for that and thought that it would work for sleep. It wasn't long after my head hit the pillow that sleep took over me, which was good.

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter, there's only about one more before it gets onto season 4. Please review it means a lot to me, and will make me upload a lot quicker, beause I'll know that people actually like it and it will give me a reason to keep writing. **

**Skye-Casey x **


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey,**

**thank you for the people that are following it and have made it a favourite it made my day, along with Guest who gave me three reviews in one day. I was very happy. Anyway this one is a little shorter than the last two, I didn't really notice it until I had written it. **

**So I hope you enjoy, **

"Up both of you," someone shouted through the door, banging loudly on it to, I assumed it was probably Thea. Whenever something I didn't like happen it was normally her. I got up pretty quickly not wanting to hear her do that again; I picked the purple version on the dress yesterday. Kate leant me a hairbrush, it was then that I realised there were still basic things that I would need to buy.

When me and Kate got down to the main servant area, Thea gave me a plate and pointed me in the direction of Gwaine's room. She was trying to annoy me, was this meant to be sly, because it was obvious.

"Gwaine's the worst one to wake up in the morning," Kate muttered to me walking past me with a plate in her hands.

Well this was going to be a good start to my day. Did I just walk in or would he already be awake? This job was starting to look harder than I thought being a servant was and I had only been here a day. I decided to knock on the door, which I wasn't surprised when he didn't answer it. I looked around to see there were already some knights walking around, but none of them were the ones that I had met last night, which meant I was going to have to just walk into there.

I walked in put the food on his little table, and saw him lying there sleeping like a baby. I couldn't deny it he looked really cute when he was sleeping, and he didn't snore which was a shock when it came to most the men I had, had the pleasure of waking up before. I wasn't sure which the best way to wake him up was, but when I saw a small amount of light coming through the gap in his curtains. I decided that would probably be the best way to go, as I walked over to them I reminded myself to ask Kate how she normally woke them up.

"What the hell?" Gwaine groaned putting a pillow over his face.

"I've got your breakfast Sir Gwaine," I said trying not to laugh at calling him that. He seemed to recognise the voice, and he suddenly shot up. Though I didn't think about what he'd be wearing to bed, which I saw when the covers fell from him when he sat up. Yet again he didn't wear a shirt, which was still as nice to see as it had the first time I did.

"Carmen, I should have known you were the only one of the servants that would wake someone up like that," he replied. The cocky grin I was used to had come back on his face.

"Sorry, no one gave me a warning as to how to wake you up just that I needed to your on patrol," I said hoping what I had said was true. He flopped back down onto his bed which I assumed meant he didn't like being on patrol. "Okay, I'll leave you to eat and I'm sure I'll be back in a bit to collect the dirty plate," I smiled walking towards the door.

"Princess, you called me sir," he smirked. I didn't show any sign of response as I walked out his door. I couldn't help but smile like I always seemed to do whenever he called me Princess. Oh God, I sounded like one of the stupid girls that had a crush on one of the knights.

"What's got you so happy? I didn't think you liked spending time with Gwaine," Kate said walking past me with a plate in her hands. She also had a smile on her face which meant she also thought I liked him and she was trying to wine me up.

"Shut up," I said walking past her and into the servant's area.

"Carmen, the Princes servant wants you, says the Prince has a job for you for the day," Thea said as soon as I walked into the area. "He'll be in the physician's quarters," she added throwing me a bit of bread for breakfast.

I suppose it couldn't be worse than what I guess she would make me do, and I didn't really think that I was in the right place to argue with her, so I left without another word. Even though I wasn't completely with it last time I had walked away from the physicians chambers I managed to find my way eating my bread as I left.

When I knocked on the door, I was greeted with the friendly face that I remembered to be Merlin and he still had the massive smile on his face. Ah bless him, he was so cute. "Carmen, hi," he said, how happy he sounded was surprisingly scary.

"Hey, Thea said you had a job for me to do for the day or something like that," I replied with a smile, although mine wasn't quiet as happy as his always seemed to be.

"Yeah, Arthur seemed surprised when he saw how I'd managed to sow his shirt up without it going wrong and I mentioned you did it not me, so he has some things he asks if you would be able to do," Merlin said.

"Sure," I replied glad I wouldn't be spending the day with Thea and it meant that I probably wouldn't have to see Gwaine.

"Okay, come with me, I'll get everything for you," he replied leading me out the room and towards wherever everything was. When we got there to say there was a reasonable amount of things to do would be an understatement, there was loads of it.

"Before you say anything, Arthur doesn't expect you to all of it. He's happy with however much you manger, as you can guess it hasn't been done in agers. No one ever seems to sow anything up, they just get new stuff made," he rambled.

"Don't worry about it Merlin, I'll be fine," I replied taking a seat at the small table which had a needle, and a lot of thread with some that matched every colour of everything here.

"Okay, I'll be back with lunch, and when Arthur's finished with me and any lose ends Gaius needs me to do, I'll come and keep you company," he said walking out the door.

Merlin kept his promise and came back with lunch and then came back mid-afternoon to keep me company, and I found out that I did enjoy his company he was really amusing to be around and seemed to make me smile. He even nearly made me forget that what I was doing was really boring and that my fingers were killing me, on an upside I hadn't actually bled on anything.

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter, it isn't a lot and doesn't really have vital information in, but the next one is the start of season 4. Please review, they really make me happy and a happy Skye-Casey means one that's likely to update more and sooner, so if you would like to see more please review. **

**Skye-Casey x**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey, thank you to everyone that has been reading it and to those who have made it a favorite, following it or reviewing it. Seeing them things on my email really makes my day. I know my spelling got commented on in a review and I am sorry, I have always been terrible at it. **

**Hope you enjoy, and this is the beginning of season 4. **

**The Darkest Hour - Part 1**

The next year went by very quickly. Kate was right Thea always made me be the one to handle Gwaine, and well we had a very flirtatious relationship and I would serious be lying if I was to say I didn't like him more than just a friend. Some of the other knights would tease me about it when they saw us talking, but they never did it in front of my brother. I think they were too worries about Gwaine's safety, although he would never alter how he talked to me even when my brother was there. Then again it was probably just me thinking too much into it, as Gwaine was known as the flirt, but he still made me feel special which I loved. My relationship with my brother was stronger than ever, when I didn't have work to do and he wasn't on patrol or training we would spend a lot of time together, which I loved. My friendship with the other knights was quiet strong, and I felt a lot more comfortable around them, although Thea still didn't like the fact that I didn't address them as sir. The hunt for Morgana wasn't going well they hadn't heard anything from her, which normally put the knights in bad moods when they would come back from looking for her. I had a strong friendship with Merlin and Gwen, and tried to spend my free time with them. I helped Gaius on occasions to; when he found out I used to help medically in my village. He seemed to like that I was able to help and that I enjoyed whereas when Merlin did he looked like he could find a million and one things that he would rather be doing. Mine and Kate's friendship wasn't as strong, she had let slip about what had happened in the woods and Gwaine saving me which I wasn't happy with because she promised she wouldn't, but we did still get on fine, which meant the sharing of room wasn't awkward. Sometimes it did look like she was jealous because of the friendship I had with the knights and other servants. Also sometimes my brother would just appear with gifts for me like a new dress, which she seemed to look annoyed that she had no one doing that for her. The Prince was always nice to me when I would see him, and I would still do the sowing whenever I was asked.

Today was the day for Samhain when they remembered those that had died. This year it was mainly based on the people that had died when Morgana took over the kingdom. It was likely to be Arthur that would be in charge of what happened because the king hadn't really come out of his room since Morgana betrayed them both. Thea woke me up really early so I would get the joys of dealing with Gwaine who didn't like mornings, I put on a plain light blue dress that my brother had got for me a few weeks ago, braided my hair to the side and made my way to start the day.

"Breakfast," Thea said placing a plate in my hand and pointing me in the direction of Gwaine's door which was bound to be something joyful. I opened his door to see that he was still like normal asleep, only some of the knights were in at the moment were here at the moment a patrol had been sent out to look for Morgana, Leon and Elyan were part of it. It caused me to worry as I didn't want anything to happen to them. I placed the plate on his small table and opened his curtains like I did every time I was in charge of waking up.

"Morning Princess," he mumbled putting a pillow over his head to keeping the sun out of his eyes.

"Morning, and up, you and Percival are meant to be doing something while the rest of us are trying to sort out everything so you can have a nice feast tonight," I said standing at the end of the bed tapping my foot hoping that the noise would annoy him enough to wake him up. It didn't seem to work, so I went for the next theory which was pulling the covers off of him, and like normal he only slept with trousers on and no top which was a nice view. I was finding it harder and harder not to stare at him, I don't know why but I think I was falling for him.

"Enjoying the view Princess," I heard him say snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw he had his traditional smirk on his face, which meant he liked the effect that he had started to have on me.

"Umm . . . no, but it achieved its goal now get up. I've got other things to do today, like tidy this mess," I replied looking around his room, which was a complete state.

"Oh, yeah, you were doing your sowing yesterday, which meant that no one tidied it, have fun," he said coming back to me and starting to eat. I left before I could have an argument with him, because I quite wanted some breakfast myself. When I got back to the servants area everyone was running around in mayhem trying to get everything ready for tonight, as all the nobles in Camelot would be here tonight for the feast along with some of the knights that normally appeared for the feast. The main ones that I usually noticed being there would be Lean, Elyan, Lancelot, Gwaine and my brother, and Thea would normally give me the joys of being the one to serve them. And my main memory for every one of the feasts I had been here for was that they would drink a lot, but I would normally have a laugh with Merlin during them. Gwen didn't normally come to them; she spent a lot of her time looking after the king. When I asked her about it she said that she did it for Arthur, not because she actually liked the king.

Throughout the mayhem Thea did give me a bowl of porridge for breakfast, but she told me I had to eat it quickly because I was needed elsewhere, and I was finding it hard to do because it was boiling. I went as quickly as I could, because I didn't like the looks that she was giving me. I would be lying if I said she liked me and still sort of scared me, but she was a lot nicer to me then on the first day.

"Carmen, these sheets need taking upstairs to Lady Alyssa's room, while you're there you could be helpful and make her bed, because the maid that normally does it for her isn't well today," Thea said as soon as I put the bowl down, she out a set of sheets in its place.

I started my trek to Lady Alyssa's room who's I was pretty sure was on the other side of a castle. When I arrived at the room she wasn't there and by the time I was finished she wasn't there. I didn't have a problem with all the jobs I did, but a thank you was always a nice and as she wasn't there she probably wouldn't even notice that it had been done.

I walked back a longer way so I could get away with doing jobs for the day for as long as I could, and when I got to the corridor above the kitchen I saw Percival and Gwaine kneeling on the floor by where the holes in the floor to get the steam out were. Were they trying to still food? I gave a loud cough when I was behind them to see if I could scare them. They bother jumped and turned around to see me with a serious look on my face behind them; behind Percival's back I could see a chicken?

"Is the servant's ability to make food for you for breakfast that bad?" I asked. I was sort of annoyed because I knew how much they worked on it; I mean they got up seriously early in the morning to start it.

"I'll let you answer that one," Gwaine said patting my brother on his back.

"Carmen, you aren't serious," Percival asked trying to work out if I was mucking around, which I still hadn't worked out whether I was or not.

"You get more food than I do, and you don't see me stealing food from the kitchen," I replied realising I wasn't mucking around. "And I swear I got you up early because you had something important to do this morning," I turned my gaze over to Gwaine.

"Yes, and we are just on our way to do it," Gwaine replied.

"Whatever," I said starting to walk away, "some of us have actual work to do."

"I am so happy that my family lives nowhere near here," Gwaine mumbled. I wasn't sure whether it was aimed at Percival or not, but I wasn't really that bothered. I was going to do what I assumed would be the joys of tidying his room, which was such a mess when I saw last night.

When I reached the servants area, everyone was still running around getting the stuff ready that was needed in the throne room today.

"Carmen tidying rooms," Thea said as soon as I was back. "You're in charge of serving at the feast tonight," I knew that this was going to be coming but I was just hoping that it didn't. They were fun, but when you saw all of them sat around eating food that just looked delicious and all you had to do was watch them trying not to steal the food as it went past. When my brother on some of the other knights didn't finish their dinners and I was in the room. They would sometimes give me some, because they saw what I ate and realised that what they got was a lot more and better than that. Although a lot of times in the evenings they would be in a hurry because they were going down to the tavern. Percival had told me I was never allowed to go there, because he knew the sort of guys that were in there. Although I did point out to him that all the other knights spent most of their evenings in there, which he had no response to. I loved it when I proved him wrong and he knew it.

"Anyone in there Princess," I jumped out of skin when I noticed that Gwaine was lying on his bed. How had he beaten me back here, when he was with my brother when I started walking back here?

"Sorry, I'm just in here for tidying your room, which like you predicted this morning I would be doing," I replied with a smile on my face not sure if I was still pissed off from this morning or not.

"You're not actually annoyed about earlier?" he asked coming and standing a lot closer than earlier.

"No, probably not," I replied with a smile. "You should just know that we get a lot less then you and no chance in being able to steal any from the kitchen, and we'd be in a lot of trouble if we did."

"Sorry princess," he said kissing me on the cheek and walking out the door. I was happy that he left straight afterwards as I could feel a blush coming to my cheek and I couldn't help but touch where he kissed. Okay Carmen calm down, you need to get over it this is Gwaine we're talking about he doesn't actually want you. I mean I wasn't capable of changing him from the type of man he was now, but then I never saw him act around the other female servants like me. Although I still had to think about how he probably behaved at the tavern and he was there like all the knights basically every night.

The rest of the day went by with my cleaning all the knights I was really friends with rooms, some of them were in there and it was nice talking to them. They all seemed to be excited about the feast tonight but also upset because they knew what it was meant for. I had learnt that they were normally so excited about it because it meant they could drink a lot without getting rude looks from the other nobles, although it normally still happened.

"Carmen, what are you doing thrown room now? The feast starts soon," Thea said her head appearing around the door to Leon's room. Apparently I hadn't been paying a lot of attention to them time, I didn't mind being a maid but I still didn't like serving at the feasts. The nobles gave me the look off pity, because they all knew the story of how I had become a servant in the first place.

I helped bring in all the food in as the nobles and some of the knights started walking into the hall, there was a table at the head of the room which had Arthur at one side of the king's empty throne and Agravaine at the other side of it. Another one of the servants gave me a jug with wine in a pointed in the direction of Arthur's five main knights, that he normally went everywhere with. I decided to walk up behind them I still had the thought of Gwaine kissing me on the cheek and well if he said anything to me I bet I would probably blush. It was going well because they were all eating when I walked away but my brother knew it would probably be me so he was nice and he turned around to see me.

"Thank you Carmen," he said with a smile as I moved to Lancelot's goblet, he gave me friendly smile to as a thank you. Gwaine had looked up and winked at me before starting to eat, if there was one thing I had learnt about Gwaine was trying to get a conversation out of him when he was talking would never happen.

I walked away from the group of them to where Merlin was stood. I could feel eyes following me as I walked over to Merlin, but I decided not to turn around as I wasn't sure that I wanted to know who was staring at me.

"You have a Gwaine looking at you," Merlin said as soon as I reached him and stood at the edge with him. "He likes you, you know."

"Merlin all the servants no he flirts with most the female population of Camelot," I replied causing him to laugh.

"True, but that aside he looks at you differently than I've seen him look at other girls, and I met him the first day he came to Camelot. The day he said he hated the nobles, and yet he saved Arthur's life twice that day," Merlin said.

"Why does he hate nobles so much?" I asked looking over him. Him and the rest of the knights seemed to be laughing about something, and normally is would good when you didn't know what they were laughing about.

"I'll tell you but don't mention to Gwaine that I was the one that said it?" I nodded my head in agreement. "His father was a knight, but he was killed and when him and his mother went to their king for help he turned them away. And from what I've gathered he left his home pretty soon after that."

"So he does have noble blood in him and he could have become a knight the first time he came here," I said. Merlin nodded along to everything that I had just said, "so why doesn't he tell anyone? I mean the respect he would get if people knew."

"I asked him that once before and he doesn't like what his father was or what it did to him family and well that's the only time I've heard him talk about them when he hasn't been being rude about them, so I guess him leaving didn't go down well," Merlin replied. I knew that all the knights did get respect because all the ones that weren't born of noble blood had done something to save Arthur's life and he therefore knighted them when they were under act from Morgana. The still weren't treated the same as Leon, he was the only one of them born from noble blood, well that Arthur knew about apparently.

Arthur cleared his throat stopping me from replying to Merlin, and straight away there was silence, which was saying something with all the knights that were there. "Samhain," Arthur started, "it is the time when we feel closet to the spirits of our ancestors. It is the time to remember those we have lost to celebrate their passing," he raised his goblet, "to the King."

"To the King," everyone stood up and raised their goblets to Arthur. It was times like this when you could see that Arthur would make such a good King, I hadn't really seen him when he wasn't acting like it. Whilst I was here I had never really seen the King out of his chambers from what Gaius and Gwen said it didn't look like he was going to get any better.

I was really caught up in my own thought that when I heard the pitcher drop it made me jump, when I turned around I saw Merlin flaw to the floor. The room went quiet and everyone was stood looking at him.

"Merlin?" I asked kneeling down next to him, but he didn't respond and when I touched his forehead he was freezing cold.

I turned around and looked at the knights and Lancelot quickly hurried over to his friend. Gaius came over quickly after ordering Lancelot to carry his to Gaius' chambers. Everyone seemed to still be looking at us, I wasn't sure whether to go with them or not. "Carmen, are you coming?" Gaius questioned. I didn't need it saying twice I followed the two of them out; I caught eyes with Gwaine on the way out who gave me a smile.

When we reached their chambers Lancelot placed Merlin down on his bed. "What happened?" Lancelot asked looking between me and Gaius.

"I don't know, we were talking then Arthur made the toast and I turned when I heard the pitched hit the floor and Merlin was on the floor," I replied king of worried that they thought it was my fault.

"It's not your fault dear," Gaius said squeezing my shoulder, "but I've never felt anyone so cold before."

"Will he be alright?" Lancelot asked.

Gaius asked me to get something to improve Merlin's blood flow, while Lancelot got him to blankets so there was a chance he would get warmer. It didn't take me long to find it will even quicker than Lancelot and he had the easier job to do, actually maybe not the knights didn't nowhere that sort of thing was.

When I got back to Gaius he told me I should probably go back and see what was going on in the feast, inform Arthur what was going on. He told me I could go see Merlin in the morning or he'd get Merlin to find me.

**Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Any thoughts on it are liked. **

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	6. Chapter 6

**Hey, **

**Thank you to everyone that reviewed the last chapter, they really meant a lot to me. Here is the next bit, hope you enjoyed. Sorry it was a slow update I've been swarmed with school work and university application. **

******The Darkest Hour - Part 2**

Lancelot walked back to the feast with me, Gaius thought as a knight it probably seemed weird how much he carried about a servant, even though I think it was hard not to like Merlin. "You seem to really care about Merlin?" Lancelot said as we were walking.

"Yeah, I mean he's a good friend," I replied looking up and him, wanting to make sure that he didn't think I liked Merlin as more than a friend. "So do you?"

"Yeah, he saved my life once and when I first came to Camelot he got me knighted," he said with a smile remembering the event.

"What happened? Not meaning to sound rude, but I know that you Leon was the only original knight before Morgana's attack."

"Merlin hadn't been here for very long and didn't know that a knight had to be of noble blood, so he copied a crest from someone that he didn't think the King would recognise."

"So I guess he did?" I asked.

"Yeah apparently him and the man that was meant to be my father had only three sons, so when a fourth one turned up it was a bit weird. Then he found out it was fake I was banished from Camelot," he replied. We were outside the room that had the doors open and it seemed that the feast was slowly coming to an end.

No one asked me anything about Merlin while the feast continued because most didn't actually talk to the servants when there was a feast only the knights I normally served did, but Lancelot had told them while I had been sent to get more wine. About an hour later people slowly started to leave the throne room and retire for the night, whereas I was pretty sure I would find a lot of work to do when I got back.

Arthur came to talk to me when everyone had gone but him and his uncle. "Carmen how's Merlin?" he asked.

"Gaius didn't know what happened, but seemed pretty sure that he would be better by the morning sire," I replied with a smile.

"That's good," he said with a smile. I knew that him and Merlin argued all the time, but they seemed to have an interesting sort of friendship. Although Arthur wouldn't admit that's what it was as he didn't want to be seen as being friends as his servant, which was a bit hypocritical as he was in love with Gwen. "Carmen you're welcome to go I'm sure everything with Merlin had made you tired you should go."

"Thank you Sire," I replied with a curtsy and made my way back to the servant's quarters in the knight's area. I knew my journey back wouldn't be complete unless I ran into a certain knight, and I was right.

"Did you have fun tonight then Princess?" Gwaine said coming out from around a corner when I was just outside the knight's area.

"You know the fun of serving you food when I can't eat it," I said smiling at him. I said it to him every time there was a feast the first time he asked me I had actually meant it, but slowly after time I had got used to it and it no longer bugged me.

"You know when you get back to your quarters there will be something waiting for you," he replied with a smile. I knew it was true, but after seeing what everyone else was eating what I was about to have didn't seem very appealing.

"And I'm sure it will be truly delicious," I said considering rolling my eyes, but I thought it was probably better not to. It was after all then the food than I got back when I had a proper home, but I would still swap my old life with my mum and dad for anything.

"How is Merlin truly?" he asked it was one of the few times I had seen him without his usually cocky grin on his face.

"Gaius does seem to think that he'll be better in the morning," I said smiling. I was pretty sure it was true and I was definitely hoping that it was.

"You really care about him don't you?" he asked in a voice that almost sounded like he was jealous of the idea of me liking Merlin? Then again that was a stupid thought I mean he was Gwaine what were the chances that he actually liked me?

"Yeah, I mean he's a good friend," I answered, maybe a little too soon for denying it. "Anyway I should go to bed, especially if you want your breakfast in the morning."

"Night Princess," he said smirking again. I was starting to think he just loved the fact that he I had to give him his food and tidy his room.

"Night," I replied walking back into the servants area. When I got there everyone seemed to be asleep the only thing there was a plate of stew on the table for my dinner. The cooking that came out of this area always looked disgusting, but tasted a lot better. It didn't take me long to eat it, as I was really hungry after watching everyone else eat for must my evening. In my room Kate was already asleep, which I was a glared about trying to make conversation like we wanted to really be talking to each other was slowly getting harder and harder.

Loud banging on the door of my room woke me up in what felt like minutes later, I looked over to Kate's bed that was empty. Was it really that hard for her to wake me up too?

"Carmen, I want you out in five minutes," I head Thea shout through the door what I joyful way to start the day. I got up quickly before I had time to fall back asleep as I knew that probably wouldn't go down very well. I pulled on a light pink dress the dress I had worn the first day I had come here, that not being the reason the reason being I should probably do some washing. I tied my hair up into a knot, and made my way out to see Kate with a smirk on my face. She knew that Thea loved any reason to pick on me.

"Carmen," Thea said shoving a plate in one of my hands and a piece of bread in the other hand for my breakfast. I walked slowly as I could without anyone commenting to Gwaine's room so that I could eat my breakfast, as before this he had stolen my breakfast from me. Although working like this it did make it hard to open his door, and this time it did end up me nearly falling over but I didn't drop his food and no one saw it.

"You okay there Carmen?" Gwaine said, actually awake and dressed.

"Yeah," I said taking my bread out of my mouth. "You're awake?" I was seriously surprised this never happened unless he was out on patrol and therefore wasn't in bed or had to be up early for training or something like that.

"Surprisingly I can wake myself up, I have been doing it for a long time Princess," he replied with a smirk sitting down to eat his breakfast. The door opened loudly and quickly when I was about to leave.

"Carmen," Leon said. "You're wanted in the council chambers."

"What?" I snapped not thinking before I spoke; it was normally only Gwaine and my brother I was snappy with.

"It's nothing bad we're having a problem with a villager who had come in we thought a female presences might make her make more sense," he replied. I looked at Gwaine who gave me a smile before going back to his breakfast. I followed Leon out the door as we headed to the council chamber. "I've got to get Arthur, but Gaius is in there, he'll fill you in with everything that we no," he gave me a smile and then walked into the opposite direction.

When I got there and through the door all eyes turned to me, Gaius at the moment seemed to be comforting the girl who looked to be a few years younger than me. She also reminded me of myself a lot she had a dull coloured dress on the same colour dress that I used to wear when I lived back at home with my family.

"Ah, Carmen right? I nodded my head. "Could you please try and make sense of this woman," Agravaine pretty much demanded. Did he have to sound so rude? She was in floods of tears clearly something was wrong with her.

I walked closer to hear not wanting to respond to Agravaine worried that it would probably be a rude comment. "Hi," I said with a friendly smile. "I'm Carmen, can you tell me your name?"

"Drea," she replied in a quiet voice trying to hold back tears.

"Well it's nice to meet you Drea," I said with a smile. I looked up and saw Agravaine glaring at me, I knew he wanted answers and he wanted them now. "Can you tell us what happened?" she looked around at everyone in the room like she didn't really want to talk in front of everyone. "Don't worry about them, they just want to help."

"My father, mother, little sister, they're all dead," she said completely breaking down.

"Don't cry sweetie," I said pulling her into a hug. "Trust me I know how you feel," she looked up at me wiping her tears away. "About a year ago I lost my parents, so trust me I know how it feels. It will get better it will take time but it will. Can you tell me what happened to them?" As she was about to start Arthur walked in with Leon and Merlin behind him.

"What happened to her?" Arthur asked his uncle when he saw the Drea next to me still in tears. I pulled away from the hug, but held her hand trying to quietly comfort her.

"Her village was attacked," Agravaine replied, his voice slightly sounded like it cared now, but that was probably just for Arthur's sake.

"By who?"

"Not entirely sure, sir, Carmen here was helping us find out," he replied pointing at me.

As Arthur walked towards her let go of her hand giving her a reassuring smile, and stepping away. "What's your name?" he asked her in a sweet, caring voice.

"Drea," she said in quiet voice. You could tell she was trying to hold back the tears.

He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and smiled down at her. "Drea," she looked really nervous his being that closer to her. "I'm Arthur, don't be frightened, tell me what happened."

Tear were now definitely present in her eyes, "my mother, father my little sister, they're . . ." the tears completely came now.

"It's all right," he said in a friendly voice. "It's all right," she nodded this time believing him. "Someone attacked them," she nodded again. "Who?"

"There was no one," she said in a shaking voice. "Just . . . shapes."

Arthur looked confused and I was confused now to, "you didn't see their faces?"

She didn't reply for a while looking afraid like no one would believe her; "they had no faces." Arthur and Gaius looked between each other like they were trying to work out whether they thought she was telling the truth I mean it didn't really seem realistic, but Camelot had faced worse. I mean an immortal army not a lot of people will see that in their life.

"I-I keep telling you. They were there, but . . . they weren't there," Drea said, she looked annoyed at the idea that no one seemed to believe them. "They moved so quickly, it was as if they weren't real, but . . . they must have been. I could hear the people screaming, and then . . . silence, they were all dead." Drea started to really cry now, burying her hands into her hands.

Arthur rubbed her shoulders, and turned around to me so that I could look after her. "Thank you," he said to her before turning around to Leon and Agravaine. "Where is this village?"

"Howden, it's to the east of the White Mountains, no more than half a day's hard ride," Agravaine said as him, Arthur and Leon started walking to the door.

"Ready the men," Arthur ordered Leon, who nodded and headed out the room.

When the three of them had left, I looked up to Gaius he knew what I wanted, but I wasn't rude enough to ask. "Go say goodbye to your brother Carmen, but hurry up."

"Thank you," I replied with a smile. Drea also looked up at me like she didn't want me to leave, "I'll be back." I wasn't completely sure where I would find them but the knights area seemed the best place to start. When I reached there the only one I saw was Lancelot who was about to leave.

"Lancelot, where's" I started.

"Your brother is out the front of the castle with all the other knights," he replied with a smile.

"Thank you," I said leaning up and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

I took up to out the front where my brother was waiting for Arthur, so he was doing what he did best having a laugh with Gwaine.

"Percival," I said when I reached him, he turned and faced him.

"Carmen what are you doing here?" he asked, did he really think I wouldn't come and say bye to him?

"I wanted to say bye, and make you promise you'd come back to me in one piece," I pleaded.

"You know I will, didn't I promise you I would never leave you?" he questioned.

"Well, yeah but," I didn't know what I was saying now. "Okay then," I said stretching and giving him a kiss on the cheek. He kissed me on the top of the head, and walked off to talk to Elyan.

"So do I get a goodbye Princess," Gwaine said walking up next to me.

"Pretty please sir Gwaine will you come back to me?" I said with a smirk on my face. He laughed at my comment. "Will you promise you'll make sure he comes back in one piece? I can't lose my brother he's all the family I have left," I said looking up at him.

"Course I will Princess," he replied.

"Thank you," I said leaning up and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "And I would be happy if you were to come back in true seriousness," I smiled up at him.

"I'll try," he replied kissing me on the cheek. He walked over to his horse after that and I watched both of them ride off with the rest of them.

I walked back to the council room where Gaius was stood with the girl, and Agravaine was by the throne looking like he would rather be anywhere but here. There was something about him that just didn't seem right. He turned up just before I did, and is the brother of Arthur's dead mother and has nothing against anyone in Camelot even though his sister died her. I mean Arthur had never really seen him before, and now he wanted to play happy families, but I knew I would probably be dead before I could finish a sentence if I said something.

"Can you look after her I have patients to see?" Gaius asked when I reached them.

"Yeah," I replied. "What am I meant to be doing with her? I mean, there not going to let her stay here," I said in a quieter voice, so Drea wouldn't hear me.

"I think they're working on getting her somewhere to stay within the lower village, I'm sure someone will tell you by the end of the day," Gaius replied leaving the room.

"Hey Drea," I said looking at her. She smiled at me; I didn't think she was up to talking in case she started crying. "Why don't we go to where I live and we can spend the day together?" she didn't complain when I started leading her towards the servant quarters. How Thea would react to me not being able to do work today wasn't going to be nice to witness.

"Carmen, where have you been there are rooms to tidy?" Thea snapped as soon as I got there, she didn't notice Drea she would give me the time off right I mean I had been told to do it. "Oh, you have a guest," she did not look happy about it.

"Umm . . . yeah this is Drea, she came to Camelot seeking help and I was told to look after her for the day," I replied.

"Hello sweetheart," Thea said in a kind voice, was it just me she was rude to?

"Hi," she mumbled back.

"Why don't the two of you sit down and I'll see what food I can find for you," Thea said pointing to the table, the servants sat and eat at when they had time and didn't have to eat on the move.

"Well that's the nicest I think she's ever been to me in a long time," I said once Thea had left towards the kitchen; Drea started laughing which was the aim behind it. She had stopped trying to hold back tears now and she actually seemed happy.

"She doesn't like you very much?" she asked still in a shy voice.

"Not even when I first got here just over a year ago," I replied.

"What happened to your family if you don't mind me asking?" she questioned.

"Umm . . . well when Cenred's men attacked Camelot they went through a lot of the close by villages and mine was one of them, so after killing most of them, they burnt it down. I saw my mother getting killed," I said trying not to cry. "I looked around for my brother and father, I found my father dead, but my brother wasn't anywhere, so assumed he was dead and I had just missed him. One of the men had hurt my leg and side but I managed to make it to the woods, and well I woke up later in Camelot in the physician's chamber, you met him earlier. Apparently I had been out for almost two weeks, and well a knight Gwaine had saved me. I was told that Arthur wanted to see me and when I did I found my brother, he's been knighted," I finished it there; I had managed to hold back tears but only just.

"I'm sorry Carmen," she said holding my hand.

Thea walked over putting a plate of food in front of Drea nicely and nearly dropping mine in front of me.

"That's your dinner Carmen," She said before walking off. I looked at what Drea and she had what the knights would normally have to eat and I had what stew, which today looked led edible then it normally did.

"Well I knew her being nice couldn't last for long," I said to Drea when Thea had walked off again. Drea laughed it was nice to hear her doing it. We spent the rest of the day talking I wouldn't lie I was going to miss her when she went back to where they were moving her. I was surprised someone hadn't come to make her leave her already, especially as Agravaine would be in charge as Arthur was gone. Gwen came about an hour later saying they had found her a family to stay with until Arthur came back and they could properly sort out what was going to happen after they had seen her village.

"Will you visit me?" she asked as a guard came to walk her to her new house.

"Course I will and you can probably come up here if you want to see me," I replied with a smile pulling her into a hug.

"Thank you for everything," she said walking away. I watched her go until I couldn't see her anymore.

**Thank you for reading and I hope you liked, and if you did there is a button bellow that I would really like you to press 'review'. **

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	7. Chapter 7

**Hey, thank you to all that reviewed to my last chapter it was very muchly appreciated. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update, I am slowly drowning in college work. I am trying to get a new chapter up a week I do promise. **

**I won't ramble anymore I hope you enjoy. Oh and I'm sorry now for any spelling mistakes or grammar problems. **

When Thea didn't make any comment for me to do work for the rest of the day, I thought I would go and send the day with Gwen something I hadn't done in a while, one of us was always busy.

I found her outside the King's quarters where she could normally be located; I had honestly never seen someone so dedicated to wanting to help someone they didn't like.

"Hi," I said as she started walking out the door. "Are you busy for the afternoon?"

"Not really, I've got to be around later to give the King his dinner but that's it. Why what are you thinking?" she asked.

"Just thought we could spend some time together I mean we haven't done it in a while," I replied hoping she would say yes, as going back to the servant quarters wasn't appealing to me at this point in time.

"Yeah that sounds goods, it might be nice to get out the castle," Gwen said as we started walking through it, and to her house.

"So I've heard gossip going around about you and Gwaine?" Gwen said once we were in her house.

"What are you serious? From who?" I asked quickly. Why did people think there was something going on between the two of us? I mean the way we talked was no different than how we used to when I had only just met him.

"The other servants from the guards area, I think we can assume they originated from Kate," she said handing me a cup of tea.

"Sounds about right," I replied holding onto the cup as it was nice for hands to feel warm.

"So what are your feelings towards Gwaine then?" she asked with a smirk on her face. She knew I had them we had talked about it before. "I can see the way the two of you look at each other, you look at him when you don't think he's looking and then he looks at you when you're not looking." Okay so what she was saying was true but did I want to admit it out loud.

"Well I'd be lying if I said I didn't like, but come on he's Gwaine everyone knows he's a flirt and will not like me," I replied, she was just looking at me with a big smile on her face.

"I couldn't be sure but I reckon he does like you. Do what I did with Arthur and wait to see if he does anything, you might find out that I'm right," she replied.

"Or I could use my common sense which is telling me the obvious that Gwaine isn't going to ever like me, I mean come on he is Gwaine. He likes any female attention that he gets, mine isn't any different than any other that he gets," I said firmly, I was not going to let her try and change my mind.

"Okay Carmen, I'll take your word for it," she replied with a smirk like she thought she was going to be right. I just really didn't see it happening. We spent the rest of the day talking about anything and everything; I don't think I had ever had someone I got on as well as I did then Gwen. She was so nice all the time.

"We should get back up to the castle," she said looking out the window and seeing that it was starting to get dark. "I need to get the dinner for the King and you know that Thea will have something that she wants you to do," she smiled, knowing what the relationship with Thea wad normally like.

"Indeed the joys of Thea," I replied standing up. I hadn't noticed until we got outside but it was a lot colder than it had been in weeks. Then it happened it came out of nowhere, I shape just like Drea had talked about earlier. If I had to describe it as something, I would have said that it looked like a skull. A knight jumped in front of the two of us who were clinging onto each other for dear life, he waved a torch at it which made it go away.

"You two should get up to the Castle quickly," I couldn't recognise who it was, but I think I still had thoughts about what had happened in my head and I wasn't really paying attention to his face after just seeing something that didn't have one. "Take this," he said handing the torch over to Gwen, who seemed to be handling this, a lot better than I was.

"Carmen, are you okay?" Gwen asked looking over at me. I wasn't sure what expression was on my face but from the concern in her voice I would say that it wasn't a good one.

"Umm . . ." I started talking but then I didn't trust myself not to say anything bad so I decided to nod my head.

She didn't look convinced, and well I'd be very surprised if she did, "let's get back to the castle and see what's actually going on," she said taking my arm and almost pulling me there. The town had been running around everyone seemed so scared, at some point I swear I saw people lying on the floor and they looked frozen. Is that what happened if one of those things touched you? Was that what happened to Drea's family?

When we got closer to the Castle there were guards and knights running around almost all of them had torches or were with someone with them. Was that all Camelot had to protect themselves with? There were village people running around up here too, there were also knights and guards carrying people that were either frozen or injured. I wasn't sure but I was assuming those that were frozen were dead, someone couldn't live through being that cold for very long.

"Gwen, Carmen," Gaius called when he saw the two of us walking through one of the corridors.

"Gaius, what's going on what are they?" Gwen asked Gaius.

"I wish I knew, but for now we are not safe. Carmen, are you alright?" Gaius asked looking at me.

"Yeah, sorry things like this aren't what I'm used to seeing every day," I replied looking around, looking at how everyone was still walking around scared.

"If you spend long enough here you'll get used to it, the things we've seen throughout the last couple of years. I mean a ridiculous when you think about it from any other point of view," Gwen said giving me a hug.

"We should go," Gaius said when screaming started coming from somewhere close by. We followed Gaius towards the council room, when we got there it was where they were keeping all the knights and others that had been hurt or frozen. Some had sheets over their bodies, I assumed they were the ones that were dead, at the moment there seemed to be about ten of them. There were a lot of others that were lying down but they just seemed to be unconscious, but a lot of them looked like they were hurt bad.

"Can you two go and grab some more sheets?" Gaius asked after we had been helping out in the council chamber, and well the amount of people that were in here either really badly or hurt or dead was growing.

"Sure," I said, Gwen nodding beside me. She grabbed a torch as from what we had found the only thing that could get rid of them, well it didn't completely get rid of them they came back not long after they go, but it was all anyone could come up with. When we left I linked arms we Gwen I was nervous about going on a run out for the sheets, it was the first time I had left the council room and well I wasn't looking forward to it.

Outside the council chamber it was mayhem there were people frozen on the floor people running around really scared that they were going to end up on the floor like others. We made it to the servants area that I worked in normally, which seemed calmed no one seemed to be running around like in the rest of the castle, but we didn't want to stay around to see what was going so we got the sheets and left as soon as possible. Straight away after we left the servant area the mayhem was everywhere again.

"Gwen, Carmen, warn Gaius there are more victims by the Western gate," Agravaine said coming out from around the corner with some guards and knights by his side. He disappeared pretty much as quickly as he appeared.

The screaming started the noise that always began before one of them appeared. When it appeared one of the knights appeared and went straight into it causing him to freeze like so many of the others had. I stepped next Gwen because she was the one that had the torch that could protect us. She waved it about and the face disappeared.

"Why did I move to Camelot?" I muttered to myself, not wanting anyone to hear me.

"Because if you didn't you wouldn't get to experience every weird event that takes place here," Gwen replied with a smile on her face. We made it back to the council chamber where there didn't seem to be any more people will sheets over them which was good, but when we had been getting the sheets we had seen a lot of people just lying on the floor.

"Gaius, Agravaine says there are more bodies by the western wall," I said whilst the thought was still in my head. Gaius nodded his head in reply, he also didn't like the fact he didn't know what he could do to stop it.

When dawn broke over, they went the faces all disappeared. It had become clear that they would only come out when it was dark, which was good I suppose it meant that we were safe for at least half a day. I looked out of one of the windows in a corridor seeing all the damage that they had caused, I wasn't an expert but Camelot could not survivor through this happening too many more times. From the forest I saw seven horses appear, and every one of them had one person on that seemed to be in one piece, which meant that Arthur, Merlin and the knights were back. I didn't want to look too excited so I walked towards the entrance to the castle, after everything we had seen I wanted my brother more than anything. I also wanted to check that Gwaine was still in one piece.

When I reached the entrance of the castle they were all dismounting their horses, whilst looking at what damage had been done. There was nothing on Arthur's face but worry; it was amazing how much he cared for all the people of Camelot.

"Carmen," my brother called taking me out of my train of thought. When I re-entered the real world he was walking over to me. He pulled me into a hug, which made me feel better and not as worried about what had been going on just a couple of hours ago.

"You're back and in one piece," I said with a smile pulling away.

"When do I ever break promises I make you?" he said bending down and kissing me on the top of my head. The rest of the knights had left the area going to sort out themselves after being gone for so long, it was then I realised that I had been away from work for ages and that Thea probably wasn't going to be best pleased with me when I got back.

"True," I replied. "I should probably go see what damage was done to the knight area of the castle, as I'm sure Thea has lots of work ready for me to do. I'll see you later," I went on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek before walking through the Castle. The Castle was a mess which probably meant days' worth of work once, whatever was going on was over, and if it meant that this would be over I was looking forward to it.

"I kept my promise you princess," someone said as I was about to go into the servants part of the knights area. I knew who it was straight away because there was only one person that ever called me princess.

"Indeed you did both you and my brother both came back in one piece," I said turning around and smiling. Gwaine had obviously been back to his room, as he just a thin shirt on that normally went under his layers of armour. "Thank you," I leant up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"You should give your brother more credit, he doesn't actually need looking after," he replied with his normal smirk on his face, which I had to admit I did miss seeing every day.

"I know I should, but I just can't stand the idea of losing the only member of my family I have left," I said the thought of losing my brother was just something I never wanted to go through I honestly didn't know what I would.

"You know the rest of the knights see you a sister Princess," Gwaine said trying to cheer me up, but in a way it did the opposite. Did he think of me as just a sister? Was the pathetic arguing that went on between us just in his eyes how brother and sisters can argue?

"Yeah, I suppose," I replied not really in the mood to talk. "I should go and see what Thea wants me to do." I walked off without waiting for a reply, at this point I was worried if I talked to him I could break down, and if he didn't feel anything for me I didn't want him to think that I felt something for him. Maybe I should change how I acted around him, stop with the arguing and just do the job like all the other servants did.

"CARMEN, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Thea screamed as soon as I walked through the doors, had she been worried or did she need me to do something?

"Umm . . . Gaius wanted help with the people that were injured, and I know a little bit about what physicians do, as I used to help my mother back home," I replied. Looking around the room, I could see that everyone that I knew from around here was still in one piece which was a good sign.

"Well then, there are some knights that want food," she said handing me a plate, which I knew must be for Gwaine; my day just couldn't get any worse. It wasn't worth even to try and get out of doing it, why couldn't she make me be like the personal servant of a different knight, any of them, my brother probably as a preference.

I walked off before I said something that I would probably regret or said something that implied that I liked Gwaine. Overtime I had learnt to just walk into Gwaine's room he was never busy when it came to food, as that seemed to be the thing that he liked the most in the world.

"Lunch," I said putting it down on the table. When I looked up I saw that he was actually asleep, which was something I had never seen before when it came to giving him food. I suppose he had been up since he hadn't gone yesterday morning, but then again so I had I and I knew there was no chance I would be getting any sleep, because there was always a lot to do during the day and well I wouldn't know what could happen to me if I went to sleep at night when those things attack. "Gwaine," I said walking over to his bed. "I've got your lunch." Me being closer seemed to do it for him, he heard me straight away. When he stood up I walked away and drew his curtains because I knew he never slept with a shirt on and at the moment I was sorting out my feeling for him, so that I only thought of him as a friend or brother.

"Carmen, are you okay?" he asked, which I was surprised that he had called me Carmen that didn't happen very often, and when it did it meant that he thought there was something wrong with me.

"Umm . . . yeah," he gave me a look that said; I know you're lying to me. "Or not, it's probably just the lack of sleep getting to me," I said knowing that, that one was actually true we couldn't sleep last night and they weren't going to let us out of our jobs to sleep. Looking at his food also wasn't making me feel good I really needed to look into finding food that I could eat not just give to other people. I wasn't in the mood for the two of us to start any stupid arguing, so I left him to eat and decided I'd just come back and get it later.

"Carmen, I'd walk back quickly Thea's giving out food, but she doesn't have a lot so I would hurry up," my friend Tom that worked with me said with a sweet smile. He was one of the few servants that I would actually voluntarily spend time with.

"Thank you," I replied hurrying back to the main servant area where we normally ate unless we got our food shoved at us at the same time as we got told to do something else. When I got there all that was left was a bread roll, which I suppose was better than nothing. Hopefully these things would be gone soon and then we would be back to normal. I ate the roll too quickly for my own good, because Thea had appeared and she'd want me to have Gwaine's plate which I didn't, so whilst a lot of people were hurrying through the room, I joined the rush so I could get out.

It wasn't a surprise that after being gone for less than ten minutes that Gwaine had already almost finished the food I had given him, how did he eat more than me in less time. "Are you nearly done?" I asked when I stood next to him.

"Umm . . . yes," he slowly replied like I had knocked him out of his train of thought.

"Are you sure?" I said. "I mean not meaning to be ride but I've been giving you like three courses a day for a year and this is the first time you've ever left anything," I pointed at the piece of chicken that was on the side of the plate.

"Present for you sweetheart," he said standing up, giving me a kiss on the cheek and walking away to get changed.

"Are you sure, because it is your food," I replied looking at it. I would be lying if I said I didn't want it, but I knew I wasn't supposed to take the food meant for the knights. I had, had this lecture before, the knights were here to protect us and we therefore shouldn't take any food from them even if they offer it to you. It had only happened a couple times, my brother would make a comment about me not being fed enough and then he would give me some of his food, but then in would walk Thea and she' start screaming not evening listening to my brother when he says that he gave it to me.

"I'm sure," he replied pulling a shirt over his head. I perched on the corner of his bed, and took a bite from the chicken, which tasted so good. I had to stop myself from moaning because I hadn't eaten chicken in a while. It wasn't something we normally got given.

"So what did you find in Drea's village?" I asked once I had finished that bite. The one thing I made sure I did was eat like a properly lady should, as when I was in a hurry I would be a very messy eater.

"Nothing really, it was mainly empty and what we did find was frozen people, which happened here too last night," I nodded my head. "And well the faces that only get repelled by fire."

"Last night was definitely something I'm used to witnessing, but then like Gwen said it is one of the many interesting things that come along with living in Camelot," I said taking another part of chicken.

"Gaius will find out what is causing the problem and then Arthur will stop it," Gwaine said. "You've got nothing to worry about," he smiled at me as I kept eating.

"You know at one point either you or my brother are going to say that to me and then something really bad is going to happen to you, and you'll be thinking why did I never use to take Carmen more seriously," I said after I had finished the chicken.

"You need to stop worrying," Gwaine said sitting down next to me and taking my hand in his. "Leon's been a knight of Camelot for a long time and nothing had ever happened to him."

"Wasn't he telling me the other week that he like died when Cenred's men attacked him when he was on patrol," I said trying not to read too much into the fact that he was holding my hand.

"But he came back from it all," Gwaine replied, apparently he didn't think that I would try and outsmart him and that I would just take what he said.

"Well then, I do hope there are some druids around with the cup of life that they'll you on you," I said with a smile.

"Now that is the semi-positive attitude that I was looking for so well done Carmen," he said with a smile on his face.

"Thanks, I should get back to work before Thea comes looking for me," I said. When what I really wanted to say was something like I would be happy if I never moved again, sat next to him whilst he was holding my hands was definitely something that I liked.

"You probably should, as that lady sometimes frightens me too," he replied with a smile on his face, as he let go of my hands. I picked up the plate and walked out of his room with a smile on my face, I felt like a child with their first crush, it made me feel stupid and I didn't like it.

**I hope you enjoyed. Please remember reviews = happy Skye-Casey and happy Skye-Casey = more updates. **

**Skye-Casey x**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey, sorry for such a long wait but it was christmas time and that's normally a really busy time of year. So look at this as a late christmas present. Thank you to Megan-Ruth, Daybreak96 and Anna for the reviews on the last chapter. Anna was probably the one that made me put another one up. I was also really annoyed about the final episode that was on after all they killed Gwaine and I love him. I was close to tears when he died.**

**Anyway hope you enjoy, sorry for any spelling or grammar problems. **

Luckily I didn't have a run in with Thea, well I did have to go find her to see what she wanted me to do for the day but she didn't raise her voice once, and that didn't happen very often normally that was how are conversations started. Like I thought she wanted me to clean up the mess that had been caused throughout last night.

"Carmen," Merlin said running down one of the corridors. "We're leaving again and I thought you might want to say bye to your brother."

"Why do you make it sound like this could be the last time I might see him?" I asked it wasn't often that someone else came and got me to say that they were leaving normally I had to find it out myself.

"Umm . . . well they're going to the Isle of the Blessed," Merlin started to mumble. "And Arthur intends to sacrifice himself and well any of the knights would give their lives for him, and then there's getting to the Isle of the Blessed, with the Dorocha's around."

"Merlin what's a Dorocha?" I asked confused, and then well I thought it could only possibly be one thing.

"Whatever has been coming out at knight, and I'm going to stop talking before I say anything else that I'm not meant to," Merlin replied.

"Where are they?" I asked needing to see my brother before he did something stupid. I knew he would give his life up for Arthur and well I had to go convince him that he didn't want to.

"Out the front getting ready to leave, and if you could leave out the sacrifice bit that would be great as I feel I wasn't meant to say that," Merlin said loudly after I had started running out to the front. When I got out the front all the knights were checking that they had everything they needed to go, because they didn't know how long they'd be gone and well they knew what they were going to face would be bad but they didn't know what they would be doing.

"Come to wish me luck Princess," I turned around and saw Gwaine with a smirk on his face. It would be him that didn't know if they were going to live or die and he was still joking away.

"Technically I came to see my brother, and shockingly after not normally wishing you luck do you really think I'm going to start now," I replied. "Gwaine, will you . . . "

"Look after your brother and make sure he comes home in one piece," he said knowing what I normally said. I nodded my head to show him that I was apparently very predictable. "Don't I always?"

"Well yeah, but I just have to come and check," I smiled at him. "I'd also be happy if you came home in one piece to, alive and in one piece," I leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek like I normally did.

"You know I'll do my best," he kissed me on the cheek and went back to sorting out his horse.

"Carmen," my brother said stealing my attention away from looking at Gwaine.

"I just came to say please . . ."

"Come home in one piece? Like you do every time," he said with a smile on his face.

"What can you imagine if I don't say it once and then that's the one time something happens to you?" I said looking up at him.

"I'll be fine, don't worry," he said kissing the top of my head, and then pulling me into a hug. "I'll see you soon." He walked with the others out of the gates. This was going to be horrible waiting for them to come back, I mean normally I would get on like normal with my job but we were having to deal with the Dorocha whatever that actually meant.

I sat out on the steps outside the main entrance of the palace trying to just work through everything that happened in the past two day. Obviously I knew about sorcery and how it was band in Camelot, but I had never mentioned anything really bad happen whilst I was living here.

"Carmen," someone said from behind me when I turned around Tom was stood there. "Thea is letting us rest before it all starts again tonight."

"Your serious?" I asked shocked that Thea would ever agree to something like that.

"Yeah, like you everyone was surprised, but I think she may be under orders as everyone will have to be prepared for whatever might come tonight," he replied.

"Okay, thanks for telling me I'll be there in a second," I said wanting to get my head together about everything that was going on. He walked back into the castle and left me to my thoughts. I wasn't sure how long I sat there for, but I was starting to have problems keeping my eyes open so I knew I had to get some rest if I had any chance of surviving tonight. I walked quickly to the servant quarter, and when I got there it was empty everyone had gone to sleep. I got to my room and Kate was already asleep, and I didn't want to wake her, so I untied my hair and then went to sleep. I didn't bother changing out of my dress, I was so tired and I didn't want to wake Kate.

It didn't seem that I was wake for that long until I was being shaken awake. "Carmen, you have to wake the sun will be down in less than half an hour," I heard Kate's voice. I was surprised that she had woken me, normally she liked to get me trouble by being the first one up. "I'll try and keep Thea busy while you get changed," she said with a smile and leaving the room.

"Kate," I said making her stop and turn around. "Thank you." She gave me a smile and then kept walking out the room. I quickly changed into a lilac dress that Percival had got me not to long ago; I brushed through my hair and tied the top half of it up. I had always liked wearing my hair down but it was long and could get in the way a lot, I thought it might cheer me up and I liked to fiddle with it when I was worried.

I walked out of our room, and into the main area where everyone seemed to just be waiting for the sun to set, now that was depressing. All the servant of this area where still which I was happy about, as I did like them all.

"Carmen," Thea said walking up to me. "Gaius wants you with him in case he needs help." I nodded and left straight away not wanting to get into an argument.

That night went the same as the one, Gaius made sure that he didn't separate me and Gwen from each other. I think he was worried about what happened to one if they didn't have the other with them, at least if we were with each other we could help the other. I spent most the evening helping Gaius with the people that came in injured, I enjoyed helping people but the feeling was horrible when someone came in dead. When they came in frozen was the worst because there was nothing you could do and they died prematurely. There were people of all ages that came in, the guards and knights were the main ones that came in with minor injuries, and well they just wanted to get back out there as soon as they could. If you looked out a window in the castle there were a lot more people in Camelot, a lot of people had come here looking for protection and hopefully it would be the answer for them. I wonder what we had done if I still lived in one of the villagers on the outskirts. I knew Percival would think Arthur would be able to stop it and he would want to come here straight away.

When first light came I couldn't have been happier, it meant they were gone for a while, but last night would still need to be dealt with. All that happened, all the people that got hurt or killed and all the mess that would have been made around the Castle. I just hoped that Arthur and the knights were getting somewhere with destroying the problem, I couldn't think about how they were doing it.

I was put in charge of making sure that all the knights that were around were fed and ready for tonight. I wasn't sure what Thea meant by ready for tonight, how you could really get ready to go up against something that couldn't die and well you were more likely to be killed than the other way round. People from the outside villagers were still coming in; I did wonder what happened to people from mine and Percival's village. I didn't believe that we were the only ones that had survived others must have gone into the woods, and found other places to live. We weren't as lucky today they didn't give us a chance to sleep today, I think the damage was getting worse and although it hadn't even been two days they didn't believe that Arthur could defeat them.

Later in the afternoon towards when it was staring to get dark I found Gwen looking towards the gates.

"Gwen, what's going on?" I asked walking up and standing next to her.

"There shutting the gates," she replied I looked out and saw the people from the lower town and people who I assumed to be from the outside trying to get through but they were being stopped by guards. "Who would do that?"

"Carmen, we need more stretches and sheets, as many sheets as you can find," Gaius said walking into the corridor seeing me and not Gwen apparently.

"Gaius the guards are under orders to shut the city gates at duck," Gwen said sounding upset and worried. Of course the people that were being shut out would be those that she knew because she lived in the lower part of town. It made you wonder if she hadn't been in work now would they be letting her through.

"Who's orders?" Gaius asked trying to work out who could give that order. The king couldn't possibly be doing it, as he probably barely knew what was going on, and well Arthur wasn't here and he was the next and only one able to give orders I thought.

"Lord Agravaine's," she replied still looking at the people unable to get through. Of course why hadn't I thought of it? Arthur would have put Agravaine in charge if he wasn't here and well before this I would have thought that he wouldn't be very just, but this just proved it.

Gaius turned and started walking towards the council chamber; me and Gwen looked at each other deciding we should go with him wanting to know if Gaius could get him to change his mind. I really hoped that he could.

When the three of us walked through the doors to the council chamber, the council was in session. Could they really make any decisions without the head of the council there? The entire council turned and looked at the three of us.

"Gaius, you come to join us?" Agravaine asked looking at the three of us, but not really giving me or Gwen a lot of attention, after all what could two servants really do against him.

"Why've you closed the closed the city gates?" Gaius demanded getting straight to the point.

"We have limited resources Gaius, as much as I would like to we simply cannot feed the entire kingdom," Agravaine replied. Exactly how much had he been eating, I mean thinking about it I hadn't eaten or drunken anything at all today.

"Surely the people have the right to be protected," Gaius argued against Agravaine. I knew that Gaius cared about them but I didn't think he would argue against Agravaine about it who after all had the power here.

"I would be putting Camelot in danger, starvation, and disease. You of all people must understand Gaius. The gates will remain shut till we are free of the evil that plagues us," Agravaine declared sitting back in his seat. Gaius turned around to leave which I followed after all if Gaius couldn't get him to listen to him; I wasn't going to be much use.

"Now gentleman where were we," Agravaine started his conversation up again like we had never been here.

"But my Lord," Gwen said causing me to spin around, along with all the court members to rise their heads, along with Agravaine who didn't look happy. "May I be given permission to address the court?"

"Guinevere," Agravaine said giving her permission but looking amazed that she had talked out.

"Prince Arthur taught me long ago that every citizen of Camelot is important. He would never stand by and let them suffer, he would help them if he could and we must do the same," Gwen said with a little sign of plead in her voice.

"I feel the pain as much as you, but we don't have a choice if we keep letting people in our food will run out within day," was he only thinking of himself?

"You're wrong," Gwen said. Every council member looked up at her, I looked over at her surprised that she would talk back like that.

"Perhaps you would enlighten me," Agravaine replied looking like he was ready to do anything if she spoke out of tone with him again. There was definitely something scary about that man.

"Those outside the gates our land owners, farmer, the day the refuges have been bartering their where's with the town folk in return for the safety of their halves. They bring with them far more than they take," Gwen said obviously knowing a lot about what was going on out there than the rest of us did. She was so nice it wouldn't surprise me if she was letting people stay in her house.

"But how long till these where's run out?" Agravaine shot back her. it was almost like he would do anything than help the people that were outside helpless.

"Three days ago Prince Arthur embarked on a quest to rid us of these creatures at worst we have another till he reaches he goal or do you think he will fail?" she asked. I wouldn't have been surprised if he said he thought Arthur would there was something about him that just didn't seem right.

"Of course not," he replied. Maybe I was wrong maybe he did believe in his nephew and everything that he was capable of.

"Sire she's right," Geoffrey said. I didn't really know who Geoffrey was other than he was in charge of the library; he was on the council and seemed to be a good friend to Gaius.

"Very well re open the gates," Agravaine said. I assumed he had changed his mind because the council were starting to think that Gaius and Gwen were right. I curtsied to the council and then followed the other two out of the chamber.

"Well done Gwen," I said pulling her into a hug happy that she was the one that had got Agravaine to reopen the gates. "I didn't realise you had something like that in you," I pulled away from her.

"It was the truth Arthur will come back and he won't want more of his kingdom harmed than have to be," she replied. I looked over at Gaius because he must have known what Arthur was planning to do like I did, obviously Merlin probably meant to tell him whereas it just came out when he rambling on to me. I nodded in agreement with her I know longer knew what was going on who would come back and who wouldn't it was just confusing, I was just going to hope and probably be naïve saying all of them.

"Can you two go and get the sheets now we have that finished?" Gaius asked wanting to get back on to point. We both nodded and walked to the servant's quarters where we kept them to see if there was a lot of left, because we seemed to be getting it every night so far.

Nothing happen dramatically during the rest of the evening that I was happy about, as interesting as it had been Gwen's and Agravaine's conversation had been he looked like he wanted to get rid of her because she showed him up. I just want the problem to be over and me to go back to my daily arguing with Gwaine I would be happy with.

When the sun rose I decide to leave Gaius for a bit and see how everything was going on in the servant quarters. Even walking through the corridors you could see what had happened to people, some there were some dead lying on the floor as no one had been able to move them yet. There was blood on the floor in places which was a lot better than bodies, but you wondered what happened to the people that the blood belonged to.

"Ah Carmen, you're back," Thea said as soon as I stepped over the threshold of the servants quarters. The area was starting to look a little untied it was nothing really because we didn't have a lot, but the chair that we had many weren't up straight anymore and some looked like they had broken legs. "Breakfast," Thea added handing me a bowl of porridge, which I had not been happier throughout my life to see food. I picked up a spoon and ate extremely quickly; just the sight of it had shown me how hungry I was after not eating a proper meal in about two nearly three days. As I put the bowl done because I had finished I realised that there were some people that had barely started there, I guess that didn't make me look too good. I sat and waited while everyone else was finishing their breakfast, as I didn't want to volunteer to star work and I was tired. I couldn't wait till this was over so I could get just a normal night's sleep. "We're under orders today from Lord Agravaine to tidy up the castle make it look presentable for when out prince comes back."

This was going to be a fun day. I decided to start with inside the knight's rooms to see what damage could be done. The rooms were about normal, I think it was mainly because a lot of them were still leaving in them or Gwaine and the rest of the knights had been in it one day in which we hadn't been in their to tidy them. The day went by slowly, because there weren't any of the knights in their rooms. When I had been going for most of the day and there could only be a few hours left till sunset. I went looking for Gaius as I wanted to see.

"Gwen," I said as she walked past me really quickly without a comment, which was unlike her.

"Sorry Carmen I didn't see you," she said stopping and turning around.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" I asked curious to what she was so late to or wanted to get to really quickly.

"Lord Agravaine wants to see me; he wanted to know my views on everything that's going on in the lower part of town," she replied with a smile happy that he actually wanted to know her opinion. I knew it must have better knowing that he wasn't just going to use his opinion, because I would be amazed if he had actually ever been down to the lower part of town.

"That's great, well done," I said giving her a quick hug. "You better go, come and see me tomorrow and let me know what happens." She nodded her head in agreement before walk off to Lord Agravaine's chambers.

**Thank you for reading. Reviews are most wanted I really like to hear what people have to say, so please review.**

**Skye-Casey**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey, thank you for all the people that have made it a favourite or are following the story. This chapter is the longerst one yet and is especially for Anna, who wants something tp chear her up, because school had just started. I know what that feelin gis like, I would have updated earlier but I had psychology exam yesterday. **

**So I hope you enjoy. **

I kept going to the throne room where they had been keeping all the injured helping Gaius seemed better than sitting and worrying about what could happen within the next 12 hours until it was day light again. When I reached it there didn't seem to be any new injuries but then again it was too early for them to be out. There were more bodies than I had last seen with sheets over, which means there had been people that had died during the day.

"Gaius is there anything I can do?" I asked when I saw him. He was stood putting a sheet over the latest person he had received that had died.

"Not at the moment dear, later I need to go down to the lower town to see a patient," he replied.

"I can go down for you, I mean if you want, it's nothing to complex wrong with them," I asked wanting to get out of the Castle really. Normally I would leave it when I had finished work to visit Gwen or just go for walk as being here all the time could get too much, but I hadn't been able to the last few days.

"It's dangerous out there at night Carmen," he replied.

"I know, and it's just as dangerous for you and I somehow think you've got more people that will miss you then me," I said. I didn't mean it like I didn't have anyone that liked me but Gaius knew most the population of Camelot and I doubt there was any of them that didn't like him, because he was so nice to everyone.

"What are you talking about child of course you'd be missed," he replied shocked that I would think something like that. "But I will let you I think it would be good for you to get out of the castle, to be saying things like there must be something wrong in that head of yours." I laughed, thinking that I wouldn't be surprised if there was something wrong up there. I spent the next half an hour cleaning up the blood and mess that had been cause due to all the accidents that had happened during the last couple of days.

"Here you go Carmen," he said handing me over a potion. "It's for the man at the Tavern, just give him a check over and if there is anything still wrong with him give him, this it should make him better."

"Okay," I replied walking towards the doors.

"And Carmen," Gaius said starting to turn around. "If you aren't back in less than an hour I will send a guard to come and find you." I nodded my head in agreement; it was really sweet how much Gaius cared for everyone.

I was so happy to finally be outside when I was on the way to the Taverns, but it went downhill when I saw Gwen unconscious on the ground. I quickly walked in the direction of her checking for a pulse, which I found but there was sit a cut in her face that didn't look too good. I tried to shack her awake but it didn't work. There were guards on the floor next to her, but when I checked they were both dead. This wasn't the work of the Dorocha because she would be dead and look frozen if it was. I wasn't sure how I was going to get her back to the Castle, as I didn't think I would have the strength to carry her. As I was about to shout for help I heard the screaming of the Dorocha and then the face came, I used to the torch Gaius made me promise to bring in case I came across one, and I was so glad I had listened to him.

"Help!" I shouted hoping there would be knight or a guard around because the Dorocha were still her. My entire way here I hadn't seen one and I was hoping that was because they had been vanquished but I was wrong.

"Carmen?" Edward a knight gave breakfast to normally when Gwaine wasn't there.

"Can you help me get her to Gaius?" I asked more like pleaded.

"Is that Gwen?" he said slowly kneeling down next to her.

"Yes, she's still alive but unconscious so I need to get her to Gaius, and I sort of need some help," I said giving him a sweet smile hoping he would agree to it.

"Of course I will, I've known Gwen for a long time and she's been nothing but nice to me and how could I reset a smile like that," he replied smiling back at me. Was he flirting with me?

"Thank you," I said as he picked her up and we started walking back to the Castle. Gwen didn't seem to be waking up at all during it.

"Do you know where Gaius is?" he asked as we reached the Castle.

"I think he'll be in his chambers, there haven't been any more injuries since last night, and everyone seems to be getting slowly better," I replied. We went back to our silence which I was happy about.

"Gaius," I called when I got to his chambers and the door was open.

"Ah Carmen I was about to send a guard to find you, what's the matter," he asked seeing the look on my face. I moved out the way to show a Sir Edward with an unconscious Gwen his arms. "What happened to her?" he said moving stuff out of the way and motioning to put Gwen down.

"I don't know when I was on the way to the Taverns I found an unconscious Gwen on the ground outside her house. It can't have been the Dorocha because I mean she's still alive," I rambled on quickly.

"Carmen, calm down a little bit, I'm sure she'll be fine," he said walking over to look at her.

"Thank you Sir Edward," I said turning to him, as I'm sure he didn't want to stay and watch this.

"It's fine," he replied bowing and leaving the room.

"You say you found her outside her house," he said looking over her to check there wasn't anything wrong other than the cut on her head.

"Yes, she was on the floor with two guards around her but when I checked they were dead. I couldn't be completely sure because I don't go near Lord Agravaine's chambers often but I would say they were him, which means she was attacked on the way back from talking to him."

"I'm sure when she wakes up she'll be able to tell us what happened," Gaius said putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. He was right it took about half an hour put she did wake up and I don't think I had been more relieved to see it, I mean she was probably my best friend here and I can't imagine being the one to tell the Prince that the woman he was in love with had been knocked out by someone and was still unconscious.

"You're awake," I said loudly as soon as her eyes fluttered open walking quickly over to her and giving her a hug. She looked at bit confused about what was going on. Gaius walked over looking happy to see her awake and giving me a look that said you had nothing to worry about she was going to wake up. He sat down next to her and put the cloth on her head, I stood to the side not wanting to get in the way.

"Can you remember what happened?" I asked wanting to know who would want to do this to Gwen, I mean the Dorocha seemed to have been vanquished which meant it had been done by a person.

"I remember the guards walking me to my door and then nothing," she replied looking between me and Gaius.

"Just a surface wound you were lucky," Gaius said relief that she didn't have any serious damage done.

"Everyone talks about the coldness, but I don't feel cold at all," she said obviously thinking that it had been the Dorocha that had attacked her.

"You weren't attacked by the Dorocha Gwen," Gaius told her enlightening her to what was really going on.

"Then, what?" she said looking between the two of us hoping we would have answer for her when really we were both clueless.

"I fear someone wanted to do you harm," Gaius replied, me and Gwen both looked at him.

"Why?" Gwen said, worried about who would really want to her. I mean who didn't like her, I couldn't think of anyone. Oh, Morgana the thought suddenly came to my mind, but how did she get into the city there were still guards at the gates. Then again sorcery would make it easy for her to get into the city, it made me wonder how many other people might be hurt then.

"I don't know," Gaius replied. He either didn't want to think about the idea of Morgana getting inside the city or he didn't think she'd be stupid enough to actually do it when she could get caught.

"Surely if they did, they would have done a better job," Gwen replied. I don't think Morgana had even come into her head, I thought keeping quiet would be the best idea I didn't want to make the mood any worse than it already was.

"Maybe, cold blooded murders suspicious better to leave you for the Dorocha, and Carmen probably got to just in time one would probably had come in the future," Gaius replied looking at me.

"One came when I found her, so you were lucky I came I guess," I replied I wasn't sure if I was trying to make her feel better or me that I had helped.

Gaius made Gwen stay in Merlin's room for the evening not wanting her to go home in case something happened. I stayed as long as I could but it got to the time when I could no longer stay awake and had to go back to my room. I'm sure Thea would love how long I had been gone for, but then again it was late and there was a very high chance that no one would be awake in the servant quarters any more.

I was right there was no one there which meant I could go to sleep, which apparently people had now started doing again. And I couldn't have been happier about it. In my room Kate was already asleep she seemed to normally be when I got back, maybe I should talking to other people so much and just go to sleep. I went straight to sleep when my head touched my pillow.

I woke up early the next day wanting to see how Gwen was doing, so I slipped into the bluey green dress Gwen had given me when I first got here. I brushed through my hair but left it down, I tied something around my wrist that I could do it up with in case it started to get in my way. Thea was up in the servants area when I went down to it, but was busy having a go at someone so I slipped past her, because I didn't want jobs given when I was going to see Gwen.

I knocked on the door to Gaius's quarters when I reached them, "Ah Carmen if you're looking for Gwen she's already up and gone to check on the King," Gaius said as soon as he saw me at the door.

"Thank you," I replied giving him a kiss on the cheek and turning around going back in the direction I came from.

When I got to the King's quarters Gwen was just leaving them, was the King really up this early? "Carmen," Gwen said with a smile pulling me into a hug.

"It's good to see you better," I replied pulling away after a while.

"I wasn't even out that long, you've got to stop worrying," she replied with a smile on her face.

"But if I worry about you it means that I don't have to think about my brother and what he might be doing as we speak," I replied trying not to put that thought in my head just because I had just said something.

"You've been here for just over a year and he's always come back, I'm sure your brother and maybe another knight named Gwaine who you may be worried about more than the others, will come back fine in a day or two," her smile had turned into a grin, the expression that she always had when it came to talking about me and Gwaine.

"No I'm trying not to think about that knight," she gave me a look. "He made a comment about how all the knights saw me like a little sister, which implied that he did too," I said remembering that conversation it wasn't the happiest one that I had, had with him.

"What did he actually say, I'm sure it didn't come out like," she said. Why wouldn't she except the idea that maybe he was just flirting with me because he was Gwaine? I mean all the servants knew that's what he did.

"Umm . . . ," I said trying to think back to the conversation. "Something along the lines of the rest of the knights see you as a little sister."

"So he was saying that the rest of the knights see you like that not that he does. Carmen there is something wrong if you can't see that he obviously likes you. I mean I know he's known as the flirt, but the way he is with you compared to everyone else, it is really obvious that he likes you," she replied.

"I'm not going to argue about this with you again we do that enough, I have to go. Now I know your better I feel capable with getting on with whatever the rest of my day looks like," I said pulling her into a hug. "I shall see you later at some point later," I smiled and turned back to what would be the joys of tidying up for the rest of the day.

"Ah Carmen there you are," Thea said as soon as I walked into the servants quarters I hadn't been gone that long, and now everyone was awake. She didn't look annoyed which meant that people couldn't have been up that long. Thea handed me a bowl of porridge and didn't say another word to me, which meant I didn't have to live with the idea of arguing with her that was good because I really didn't feel in the mood to. Although I don't think she was in a good mood because as soon as my bowl was empty she handed me a plate. "It's for Sir Edward," the knight that had helped me with Gwen. He was one of the not many knights that actually lived within the city, with the knights you could tell who had the wealthier families because they were the ones that didn't live in the palace and apparently had somewhere within the city they lived. Leon may have been an exception I wasn't sure what his family was like, he never really talked about them. The only facts i had were that his father was a noble and Gwen's mother used to work for his family, which did say that they had some money, but also said that maybe they didn't live in the city as I don't think Gwen originated from it. I think she moved when she was very young.

Sir Edward's room wasn't that far away from Gwaine's but it felt weird not going in to his these last couple of days, other than the small amount of tidying that I had done. I did the right thing with him and knocked on the door, as Gwaine was the only one I enjoyed the petty arguing with, with the other knights other than my brother I didn't know what the outcome would be and especially now when Lord Agraviane had the power.

"Come in," a voice from the other side said. When I walked through the door he was already up and dressed how was it that Gwaine could never manage that but every other knight could.

"Breakfast," I said putting the plate on the small table that were in all the knights rooms. "And I wanted to thank you for helping get Gwen back to the castle last night. I really don't know what I would have done if you weren't there." I smiled up at him; he had always been a nice knight to me.

"You don't have to thank me for it Carmen, anyone would have helped Gwen if they saw her hurt on the floor and it is in our job description to help the people of Camelot when they're in trouble," he replied.

"Still thank you, and I'll be back in a little while for the plate," I said curtsying and then leaving the room. When I got back to the main area I was given a few more plates to bring round for the knights breakfast, and by the time I had finished that I had to go back round to collect the plates and tidy the rooms. None of the rooms were particularly untidy, that was normally left for Gwaine and his room, but today I didn't even have to go in there.

When all the rooms that needed tidying were done I got permission from Thea to go and see Gaius to see if there was any work that he needed doing. To see if there had been any accidents last night, this had been going on for nearly five days Arthur, Merlin and the knights must be at the Isle of the Blessed, unless something happened, which I was still trying not to think about. Everyone was going to be fine I just had to keep telling myself, and hope I started to believe it, even if I knew that someone had to sacrifice themselves for the Dorocha to do.

The evening was the strangest out of the ones that had gone by it was also the best, the Dorocha seemed to have gone, no one got hurt and no one saw them. It made me wonder which one of them had sacrificed themselves. I know Merlin said Arthur was going to do it, but all the knights and Merlin were all so committed to him that I doubt any of them would sacrifice themselves for him, for Camelot. There was nothing that needed doing that evening with no one newly hurt, and the people who had been slowly getting better I didn't need to help Gaius. Gwen spent the evening with the King making sure he was alright, and the knights had all gone out to make sure that the Dorocha didn't come back. With Thea not being able to find anything for us to do, as the Castle was slowly on the mend, she let us off our duties and said that we could spend the evening in our rooms. I was very happy at the idea as I would do anything for an early knight. I knew with the Dorocha gone the knights would be back soon, which mean work would be back to normal soon and I was happy about that it meant that no one would be under threat of death and who couldn't be happy about that.

Kate was already asleep when I got back which I was happy about as we would either start arguing or start talk and get on like we seem to sometimes, and I wasn't really in the mood for either of them I just wanted to go to sleep, which I managed to do as soon as my head hit my pillow.

"UP NOW," I heard through the door like I seemed to get most days, unless I wanted to do something that wasn't work related early in the morning. I sat up slowly not really feeling like I had, had a lot of sleep when I knew that I had. Today was different than most days as Kate was actually still in bed, which meant that Thea couldn't compare the two of us saying how much better Kate was compared to me. I got up and dressed pretty quickly not wanting Thea to actually come in here, like she had a few times when I refused to get up. I put on the bluey green dress that Gwen had given me when I first arrived, brushed my hair deciding to leave it down, I still had the band around my wrist in case it got in the way.

When I got out of the room, the servants area was pretty full everyone trying to eat breakfast quickly so they could get on with their work for the day. Today a piece of bread was shoved in my direction for breakfast, which normally wasn't the mot feeling thing but I would take what I was given.

Today when I did the breakfast rounds the knights seemed to be a lot happier, knowing that the Dorocha were gone, which meant to them their prince would be back soon, along with the other knights and well it was odd but everyone wanted Merlin back. The banter that went on between him and Arthur was really funny, and everyone loved to watch it.

Thea had sent me to help in the other parts of the Castle to help try and clean up all the mess that had happened due the Dorocha, which wasn't nice to do. In some places there was blood on the floor from all the people that had been hurt and a lot of things were broken.

"Carmen riders have been seen approaching the city," my friend Tom said running over to where I was in the council chambers. "I promise not to tell Thea where you are," he smiled. I gave him a sweet kiss before walking to the entrance of the Castle.

I reached the entrance to the Castle and Gwen was also stood with a big smile on her face, which I guess probably mirrored the smile that was on my face. I really want to see the fact that my brother was alive, I mean I didn't know if he was but I had a good feeling that he was. That sounded stupid, but it was making me feel better at this point.

When the horses came through the gates I counted them wanting to make sure everyone was there, but they were one short. There was only six and they had definitely left with seven. I looked up inspecting faces to see who was there my brother, was the first face I saw which made me so happy, and then there was Gwaine, Merlin, Arthur, Leon and Elyan. The face that was missing was Lancelot was he the one that had sacrificed himself for Arthur, for Camelot. They all looked really upset, which probably meant that he had been the one that sacrificed himself. I turned to see that Gwen looked like she was trying to hold back tears. I was about to give her a hug, before I felt strong arms around me, which I would know from anywhere that they were my brother.

"You're back," I said pulling away to check he wasn't hurt nothing obvious was wrong with him, which was a good sign. He looked like he could really do with a bath but other than that he looked as good as could be expected for someone who had lost a friend, a brother. Arthur seemed to be talking to Merlin about sorting out a memorial for Lancelot because it was true he had sacrificed himself for Camelot. It was going to happen later in the day, once they had all had a chance to sort themselves out from being away for so long. I would have thought they all just probably wanted to go to sleep, but now they were back I would have to get back to my job.

"I should go and see what needs doing," I said smiling at my brother. "I'll see you later."

"Carmen," I heard the voice of Arthur call.

"Yes my Lord," I said walking over to him. He looked just as upset as the knights, it was obvious that Lancelot had meant a lot to him even if he was a Prince and Lancelot was just a knight.

"You should be at the memorial, I know that the two of you got on well," Arthur said, although his attention seemed to be on looking at Gwen who still looked like she was trying to hold back tears.

"Thank you," I smiled at him. "That would mean a lot to me, I'll go see if she's alright," I looked at him and then to Gwen. He nodded as a thank you before heading off with Merlin not far behind him.

Gwen started walking away from the entrance, I followed after her. I knew I had promised the prince but I also wanted to know how she was, she is still my best friend. "Gwen," I called making her stop and turn around. I pulled her into a hug, and the moment my arms were around her she didn't hold back the tears anymore.

"It's my fault," I heard her mumble into my shoulder.

"What?" I asked not sure what she was talking about, if she was just babbling due to being upset.

"I made him promise not to let anything happen to Athur and he died protecting him," she said. Once she had actually said it, it made her cry even harder. I rubbed her back trying to soothe her into stopping her.

"Any of the knights would have done what he did, they would do anything to protect Arthur and you know it," I said. "It was always going to be one of them that didn't come back Arthur always would have," I said the last bit quieter knowing that she didn't know what I was told by Merlin before any of them even left, and I had a feeling she wouldn't forgive me if I knew that Arthur planned on sacrificing himself from the beginning.

We must have stood there for about half an hour until she stopped crying, we were still hugging when someone cleared their throat behind us. The two of us jumped apart actually worried that we were going to get told we were doing something wrong, but like normal we weren't it was just Gwaine.

"I'll leave you two to talk," Gwen said giving me a smile as a thank you for calming her down.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I said completely ignoring the fact that Gwaine was there. She nodded and started walking off.

"How are you?" he asked standing about a meter away from me, which for the two of us seemed to be quiet far, as we just always seemed to get really close.

"Shouldn't it be me asking you, I mean you went out and risked your lives for everyone here and I guess you probably witnessed Lancelot's death?" I questioned.

When he replied he had a sad look on his face, "I didn't I was unconscious when it happened," if we were in any other situation than this is would probably have laughed about him being unconscious when something big happened.

"Oh," was all I had to say to that. I mean what could you really say to something like that, why weren't you there to stop, what had he done to get himself knocked out, now just wasn't the time for any of those sorts of questions. Also it sounded horrible but I wasn't sure if I would have wanted him to stop it. I mean losing Lancelot was horrible he was like an older brother to me, but with Gwaine I couldn't deny it I did like him and I don't think I would make it through it, if someone would had told me it was him that was gone.

"I kept my promise I got your brother back here in one piece," he said changing the topic away from Lancelot's death.

"Indeed you did," I replied with a smile. "Thank you for doing that," I walked closer to him and lent up and placed a sweet kiss on his cheek. "You also came back in one piece which I said I wouldn't mind if that happened."

"You're right you did say that," he replied standing closer to me than before, a distance that probably wasn't correct for a knight and well just a servant. He raised his hand up and moved a piece of my hair out of face, which was why I would normally wear it up. "Your hair looks nice down." He was slowly leaning down to me, was he about to kiss me. Okay I was now starting to panic did I want him to kiss me. That was an obvious question but still I was never sure if he actually did like me like that. The questions did he, didn't me, kept going through my head until his lips actually touched mine and then well all my thoughts seemed to leave my head.

The kiss didn't last for more than a few seconds before the thoughts of whether he actually liked me came back into my head or was he just being Gwaine, the knight that was known as the flirt that would kiss any female. Not to mention Lancelot was dead and I was upset. I had it stuck in my head now that, that was the wrong thing to do and I shouldn't have done it.

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter and reviews are wanted whether they are good or telling me what people would like to see in the story. **

**Than you for reading. **

**Skye-Casey x **


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey, thank you to the three people that normally review it (Megan-Ruth, Anna and Daybreak96) and those who have started to follow it or made it a favourite, it really means a lot to me. This is the last bit to the first episode and is rather short, so I'm sorry. I'm also really sorry that it's taken me so long to update, I've had resits but they are now over. **

**This chapter is especially for my best friend Megan-Ruth for her birthday (sorry it's a day late). **

**Hope you enjoy.**

When Gwaine started to speak I quickly walked off, I mean I knew that I had wanted to kiss him for a long time, but then wasn't the right time to do it and still not being sure about how he felt about me, made me regret it even more. I heard him call after me but I kept going, knowing that Lancelot's memorial was going to be soon to. Which gave me something else to think about, then I remembered that he like the rest of the knights would be there, but then again he wouldn't be stupid enough to do something with everyone else there, not to mention a memorial for another knights death.

"Carmen, where are you going in such a hurry?" Leon said as I like ran past him.

"Umm . . ." I did not have an answer for that.

"Lancelot's memorial is about to start, I'm headed there now," he said not seeming alarmed by my lack of response which was good. Leon then walked with me the council hall in silence, which I was happy about because it therefore gave me time to try and clear my mind. It wasn't working well; as the only thing on my mind was the kiss I shared with Gwaine, and how I had probably made the worst mistake of my life by running away.

When we reached the council chamber most of the knights that knew Lancelot well were stood on right when you walked in. Gwen, Gaius and Merlin were the only people there who were not nobles or knights, so I went and stood at with them. I could tell Gwen was about to talk to me probably to ask me where I had been, but now wasn't the time to mention what had happened between me and Gwaine. Also luckily Arthur walked in with his uncle before she got the chance. It was obvious that Arthur was upset over the death of Lancelot, but his uncle's face didn't show any emotion, so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't care at all.

"I want to pay tribute to Sir Lancelot," Arthur started as soon as he reached the far end of the hall. "We owe him a great debt. It is not just his deed we will never forget, but his courage his compassion, his unselfish heart. He's the most noble knight I will ever know, he gave his life for all of us." By the time that he had finished I could feel tears running down my cheeks, and when I looked to the side I saw and wasn't surprised that Gwen was the same.

Arthur walked back out the door he came from and slowly all the knights followed him, me, Merlin and Gwen at the back. Gaius was staying in the chamber to talk to the nobles that stayed as well.

When we reached the front more knights were around a neatly pilled collection of wood, which had Lancelot's sword and cape on top. Merlin walked over to Arthur, whereas me and Gwen stayed towards the back of the knights but still in a position that meant we could see what was going on.

Merlin carried torch over to Arthur, so he could light the wood. After it had been lit Gwen went and stood closer to Arthur, as she did know Lancelot better than me and there was a look in her eye that said she wanted Arthur's comfort but she knew she wouldn't be able to get it until the knights had left. Different knights stayed out there for different periods of time Arthur's main group of knights that always went with him, were the ones that stayed the longed. Gwaine kept trying to catch my eye, and I kept ignoring it even though I knew it was happening, but I didn't want to talk to him not now. I wanted to put it off as long as I could.

Finally when it looked like he was going to walk after me I left. I would have been lying if I said it was just because I wanted to go to mine and Kate's room and sleep it would be a lie. That was some of the reason, but it was also because I wanted to put off talking to Gwaine as long as I could, which would be hard because tomorrow my work would be back to normal and I would have to serve him his meals and tidy his room. Maybe I could get Kate to do me a favour until I sorted everything out in my head. All I had to do now was come up with a reason why I wanted to stay away from him which wasn't he had kissed me, and now I was trying to avoid him.

When I reached the servants area no one seemed to be working, barely anyone out and Thea wasn't anywhere to be seen, so I took that as a reason to be able to go straight to my room. Kate was lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling it looked like, she didn't comment when I went in and I wasn't sure how to bring up whether she would swop who she normally served in the morning especially as I think it was my brother.

"Kate," I said sitting down on my bed. I was just going to go for it and hopefully make up why I wanted to change with her. She sat up in a sign that she was now paying attention to me. "Umm . . . what would I have to do to convince you to swap serving my brother to you serving Gwaine," I gave her a look in my eye that seriously looked like I was pleading with her.

"Well, you could start with a reason," she replied. Why didn't I realise that would be the first thing she wanted, I knew she wanted gossip to tell the other servants, as all of them seem to love it.

"It's nothing in particular, I mean I just never get to spend any time with him, and this would mean I would get to see him a little bit more. Plus you know as well as I do you can only take so much Gwaine, and well I guess it took a year but I'm not at the stage where I can't deal with his anymore. It'll be more like a break, I swop back with you in a few weeks if you want," I said hoping she wouldn't tell that I was lying.

"Fine, but only for a few weeks," she replied.

"Thank you," I said trying to stay calm over how relieved I was that she had agreed. She had a look in her eye that said she wanted to question me more on why I didn't want to serve him but she wasn't asking why I was very relieved about. All I had to do was hope the two of us didn't have an argument about anything which would have her change her mind.

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and please review if you do. **

**Skye-Casey x**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey, **

**I will be trying to update every week it should also be on a Thursday but I will try and stick to it unless exams or college work gets in the way. Anyway thank you for all the reviews, follows and favourites they mean a lot to me. **

**This is the first half of Wicked Day, I writing the next half at the moment so it should be up on time. **

**Enjoy. **

I had managed to go the few weeks Kate had promised me not having to serve Gwaine, but I knew that the few weeks were soon to be over and it was Arthur's birthday today and Thea wasn't going to pick Kate to be the one to the serve them tonight, so I think I was finally going to have to get over not wanting to talk to him. A lot of people had been asking why I was no longer his servant; the only person that seemed to be happy that I had swapped around was my brother who liked the idea that I was now seeing him more often.

Within the Castle everyone was still upset over Lancelot's death, I knew I was and so was Gwen. It didn't take long for Gwen to notice that something was wrong with me because I was avoiding Gwaine; I knew she would be there for me if I was to tell her, but I just wasn't ready to handle people knowing. I also couldn't bear to tell her that I had kissed Gwaine on the same day we had found out that Lancelot was gone. I knew it would come out in the end but I was going to wait for as long as I could.

I didn't even really have the time to think that much about it at the moment it was Arthur's birthday today, and someone seemed to have done a lot of planning for the day. At the front of the Castle there were entertainers coming from all over Camelot to be part of Arthur's birthday celebration and it meant that tonight would be the night I would have to face Gwaine.

It seemed that all the servants were part of getting the Castle ready for the celebration, and the servants in the knight quarters were no different. I had spent most of my day with Tom sorting out the plates and cutlery for tonight. Me and Tom's friendship seems to have grown over the past few weeks, I had been spending a lot of time within the servant quarters because I was trying to avoid Gwaine, Gwen and Merlin. Even though Kate had agreed to swap with me, we still weren't really getting on but she hadn't changed her mind on being in charge of Gwaine's room and everything that came along with that.

"Carmen, you'll be in charge of the knights tonight like normal," Thea said when me and Tom had finished the setting the tables for the banquet tonight. Kate looked over at me at this point like she thought I was going to argue with Thea, as much as I didn't want to go near Gwaine I wasn't going to argue with Thea even I knew that was a stupid thing to try.

"Right," I said trying to put on a fake smile, as I didn't want all the people present to know what was going on in my personal life. The closer that it got to when the banquet was going to start the more nervous I was becoming. What was wrong with me I seriously needed to forget about the whole Gwaine kiss.

As soon as it was dark the celebration started and the chamber was filled with people, there were all the nobles sat at one side of the table and the knights opposite them on the other. It was in the shape of a U the table the top was meant for Arthur and Agravaine. The King's throne was in the middle of the table but I assumed it would stay empty like it always did during banquets or celebrations over the past year. Agravaine was already sat down on one side of the throne; everyone was not just waiting for Arthur to arrive for everything to begin. Luckily all the food and pitchers full of wine were on the opposite side of the room to the knights which gave me time before I had to talk to Gwaine.

Unfortunately it was a mere minute before Arthur walked in, and to my and what seemed like everyone's surprise the King was not far behind him. Arthur looked like he couldn't be happier that his father was up, and he looked sort of cheerful.

Once Arthur and the King sat down, one of the chiefs shoved a pitcher into my hands, "you're meant to be serving the knights aren't you?" he said walking off before I could even reply. Well here went nothing with having to talk to Gwaine. He started staring at me the minute that I walked in their direction. I started with my brother and poured him out a goblet of wine, who thanked me. Gwaine was sat next to him, so here went the first time of having to talk to him since we kissed. It also happened that his goblet was at the far edge of the table which meant I had to pretty much reach right over him, and it didn't take long for him to notice it was me.

"You've been avoiding me Princess," he said, well stated as it was true. "You know that we have to talk." I decided to ignore him and just pour the wine into his goblet. I started to move on to Elyan when I felt Gwaine grab my arm. "You'll have to talk to me eventually; I know the servant you've swapped with wants to go back, as she mentions it most days." After that comment he let go of my arm but didn't take his eyes off of me which I had a feeling he wouldn't do for most the night. Elyan and Leon didn't talk to me when I poured theirs which I was happy about it meant that I had time to think, but they were still as nice as ever and did thank me.

I spent the next hour watching all of them eat, drink and have a good time. I had gotten used to watching them eat all the nice food that we never got and not having to care about the mess they may have caused because there were servants to do it but I hadn't eaten all day and I was seriously hungry.

"Why is Gwaine staring at you more than he normally does?" Merlin asked when I had gone to the other side of the chamber to fill up my pitcher.

"I don't know probably to annoy me," I replied looking over Gwaine who wasn't even trying to deny that he was.

"Come on Carmen, I know that's a lie," he said giving me a look that made me want to tell him the truth, but luckily before I had time to start the doors to the chamber opened. Once the doors opened acrobats came in followed closely with jugglers and dancers. The people sat down enjoying the feast seemed to be enjoying it greatly, I would admit that it was something I had never seen before all in one place and probably not even have seen if I hadn't moved here a year ago. Although on the same line of thought if I never moved here I wouldn't be in this situation with Gwaine. The King seemed to be very happy and did not look at all, compared to how ill Gwen and Gaius had said he was. The fact that his father seemed this well seemed to be making Arthur's even happier than everyone assumed it would be.

The performers froze, which caught everyone's attention in the hall very quiet very quickly. The man had a creepy smile on his face which made it seem like he was probably up to something he should not be, but then that was probably just me. I usually thought most people over a certain age had a creepy look about themselves, everyone but Gaius. A sheet was pulled off the circular board that had been out earlier when the man was practising, which was for knife throwing, but when I looked at it now it was a little bit different now it had ropes coming out of it which only meant that they were going to get someone up to take part. I was not going to like this.

"We will require a volunteer," the man said, please don't be any of the knights. The man looked around landing on the head table and staring at Arthur. "Prince Arthur, what better and more fitting occasion to demonstrate your legendary behaviour," everyone turned to look at Arthur, like they all expected him to say yes, and he shifted in his seat. "Do you accept the challenge?" it was obvious that he wasn't going to say no in front of all these people.

Arthur seemed to look around the room and notice that so many people were staring at him, and what they would all think if he was to decline the offer of taking part. He eventually stood up in agreement that he was going to take part in the knife throwing; just the idea of someone throwing knives at you seemed seriously scary, especially the prince of Camelot, someone that so many people from other kingdoms would want dead.

"Of course," he replied with a lot of confidence, he wasn't going to show it even if he was scared at the idea of someone throwing knives at you, but who would like being attached to a board that I was pretty sure spun around. The idea of it just made me want to throw up.

Everyone applauded at the idea of how brave our Prince was, as Arthur made his way over to the board. Merlin was stood by where Arthur stood emptying his pockets so nothing fell out of them. Merlin seemed to be trying to convince him that it was a bad idea to do, which if I was his servant. I had never really got the relationship between Arthur and Merlin, I mean Arthur could be so rude to him but it never changed how loyal Merlin was to the Prince.

Everyone including me I would admit was staring at the two of them trying to work out what was taking so long and what they were talking about. "Just emptying my pockets," Arthur announced loudly obviously noticing that everyone was staring at them wanting them to hurry up I would assume.

After about a minute Arthur made his way over to the board, he didn't looked worried at all about being tied to a board, but I was sure it was something to do with being a knight. I mean I had never seen any of them really looking worried when they were going off onto one of the quests which I just never got.

"Sire, if you will?" the man said ready to tie Arthur to the board. Small men on some ladders tied his arms to the top of the board. When he was finally attached admitting the truth it looked painful, the knots looked tight, and well it wasn't something that I would want to do.

"Do not, fear, my Lord. I never miss my target," the man said who was going to be throwing the knives. I would hope he wouldn't miss I mean he was throwing knives at our next King.

"God, glad to hear it," that was the first sign I had scene to say that Arthur looked scared about what was about to happen.

The man came out with a very shinny looking very red, not a colour of apple that I had seen in the kitchen of Camelot before. The candle light in the room made it looked like it was glowing, and in general it just looked very tasty, and I wasn't completely sure what he was going to do with it.

"May I?" the man said not really giving Arthur a chance to question what it was about before he shoved it into Arthurs mouth. One of the dancers pulled on the board and it started spinning, just looking at it sort of made me want to be sick. I was not good with things that spun around, and to be honest by he looks of it Arthur didn't seem to like it.

The man started walking away from Arthur getting ready to throw the knives. The first one hit him centimetres away from his face causing everyone in the room to gasp before they applauded at the talent the man had not to hit our Prince. The next one hit centimetres way from the other side of his head causing everyone to gasp and then applauded. When it came to the last one the man had an evil grin on his face like he was going to do something wrong, but shocking when the man through the knife went right into the centre of the apple which seemed amazing that the man's talent was that good. Everyone applauded after he had thrown the last knife in amazing of the skill he had. Arthur was still spinning and just staring at the knife that was being held in the apple that was in his mouth.

After Arthur had been let down he had the cocky grin that he always had on his face when he had done something and it had ended well. He put all his things back in his pocket having a quick talk with Merlin whilst he was doing it probably talking about how he had nothing to worry about. When he got back to the seat the King gave him a pat on the back to show how proud he was of his son.

The night went on for another few hours after the entertainers had gone, a lot of the guests spent the time talking about the skills that the man throwing the knives had. Looking at the knights Gwaine was still looking at me which I don't think he had stopped doing all night. They seemed to have drunk a lot from the amount of the time I had been stood there with a pitcher while they drank the alcohol down like it was water. Although with the knights they seemed to be able to hold down their alcohol and none of them seemed to be drunk. This may be a bad side though because it meant Gwaine would probably try and talk to me after the feast. There was one thing that I had learnt whilst serving at the celebrations was that if you served you didn't have to help tidy up others had to.

By the time that everyone had left most people seemed to have drunk too much, minus the nobles and the King, Arthur seemed to even be out of it which was funny but that wasn't really the point. Also Gwaine didn't seem to be drunk which probably meant he was going to be stood outside the hall.

When I left the chamber Gwaine wasn't outside the banquet hall, which was a good sign because it probably meant he had given up for the day. Now all I needed to worry about was the rest of the week.

"Carmen, we do need to talk," someone said from behind a pillar outside the servant chambers. I looked around and didn't see anyone, but I knew the voice was Gwaine's.

"Come on Gwaine, it's really late and I need to be up early in the morning to do my work," I replied trying to get out of it but at the same time I did want to just go to sleep as I knew I would be up early in the morning.

"Five minutes, you owe me that," he walked out from behind a pillar, and you could see he had gone back to his room and changed out his knight uniform, as he was just in a grey shirt, and well he looked nice. Okay I had to focus on not wanting to talk to him and stop paying attention to what he was wearing.

"Fine," I said thinking that maybe talking to him it would just be better to do it now that wait any longer. I didn't even know what I was going to say or what he was going to other than pointing out that I had like run off after he kissed me. "But not here," I added not wanting everyone to hear in case it ended badly. I didn't really want to be the talk within the servants.

"Okay," he said walking into the knights area, wait I didn't mean to talk to him in his room, what happened if we started arguing and my brother or someone else heard. Once he opened his door and we walked in I realised I was probably going to have to just talk to him in his room.

"So . . ." I said wanting him to start the conversation, although I knew what the first thing he was going to say was probably going to say.

"So? Really Carmen, that's all you have to say. I mean we kissed and then you just run off and decide to stop being my servant and move on to being your brothers," he said trying to stay calm.

"Gwaine come on, we kissed just after the news of Lancelot came out. It may have just been me, but that didn't really seem like the right time for it," I replied.

"What so you're not sorry that we kissed, it's just that it was wrong time?" he asked.

"I didn't say that," I replied not really thinking about what I was saying.

"Carmen you can't deny it there I something between us," he said walking towards me and cupping my cheek in his hand. "You can't say that you don't feel anything here between us?"

"Gwaine, what's the point of this conversation? I mean you're a knight do you really want to be seen with a servant, don't even get me started on what my brother would do if he found out about the two of us. I mean if he found out we even kissed he would probably lose it at you and I'm not going to go between the two of you," I said starting to mumble.

"Carmen, you're started to come out with ridiculous excuses, if you haven't noticed Arthur, the future King is in love with Gwen who is just a servant like you. And as for your brother we're not going to tell him, I mean there is nothing going on between the two of us," Gwaine said. Why didn't I think of the fact that everything I thought of he was going to come up with some reason to why I was wrong. "Finally what about what you want, you don't have to think about what other people say, do I really look like I care what people think about me."

"But . . ." I started to say just trying to think of something that would make me right, but I think I was out of ideas. It also didn't really matter as I stopped because Gwaine lent down and kissed me. I was frozen for a second trying to think what I really wanted, but I didn't ever really think it was a hard choice I had always wanted Gwaine.

Why was I always so bothered about what other people thought? Maybe it is time that I just do something for me without caring what others think. After I had decided it was time from me to do what I wanted I couldn't help put kiss him back. When we both pulled away he lent his forehead against mine, with a smile on his face.

"Does this mean you've decided you don't care what other people think?" he said with the smile still on his face.

"I never really did care what others thought, I just wasn't sure whether this was the right thing to do. I mean what happens if ends badly, let's face it I'm probably going to be your servant for a while, and if no one knows about us they may, think it's a bit weird that we no longer talking," I said starting to mumble getting the things that were really on my mind, but I guess I hadn't really truly thought about them until today.

"Carmen, you really shouldn't look far in the future let's just see what happens," he said, probably right about just seeing what happens.

"Okay, I really have to go, but I promise I will be here in the morning. I'll let Kate go back to serving Percival breakfast," I said.

"Thank you," he replied. I gave him a kiss on the lips and then walked out of the room. Once I'd shut it, I leaned against it trying to get my head around what had really just happened.

"Carmen, I've been looking for you," Gwen voice came towards me pulling me out of my thoughts.

"What's wrong?" I asked trying to withhold how happy I felt now that something was happening between me and Gwaine.

"It's the King he's been stabbed," she said. What?

"Stabbed, what? When did this happen?" I asked shocked that it had happened. I had never actually met the King really, but I still felt upset about the fact he had been stabbed, no one deserved to go like that. Also I was surprised that someone was able to get near him; I mean he always had guards on his doors. How could someone possibly get in? "Who did it?"

"I can't have been more than twenty minutes ago. Remember the creepy knife thrower," she said, I nodded my head, remembering how much I found him creepy. "I think he was after Arthur who was with the King, but when Arthur was about to be stabbed the king stepped in and started fighting him, and in the end he got the king," she finished looking upset. I understood why Gwen was so upset; she was such a nice person and would never which death on away. Though I couldn't understand why she was upset after all he had tried to get her killed more than once.

"Is there anything you want me to do?" I asked wanting to help and assuming that, that was the reason why she had come to find me.

"I wanted to see if you could see if Gaius needed any help medically, after all you know a lot more than I do about it. Also someone helping me look after the King would be nice, I'm sure Thea will be fine with it and Kate can help you tomorrow with serving Percival." She asked.

"Of course," I replied not liking seeing Gwen like this, and she had been my first friend since I had been here and also probably the best friend I had ever had.

**I hope you enjoyed and please review it makes me really happy which could make me feel better over how bad my college work is going. **

**Skye-Casey x**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey, I'm really grateful to those who review, follow and favourite me, it makes me want to keep going with this story and I would have given up writing it if it wasn't for that. Well I hope you have liked it so far. There is only one chapter after this one left of this episode I believe. **

**So I hope you enjoy. **

We started walking in the direction of the Kings quarters, "oh," she said stopping. "And don't think you're not telling me why you're coming out of Gwaine's room this late." I would be lying if I hadn't hoped that because of what was the wrong with the king would make her forget about that.

When I tried to walk past her not really wanting to tell her about what had happened, but she moved in front of me so that I couldn't. "Fine, I promise I will later," I said so she started walking again, as I did think we should probably get to the kings chambers.

"You better and just remember my best friend Carmen would never make me a promise then break it," she said with a smile on my face. I knew without her saying that that I as a person would never make a promise that I wouldn't keep, no matter who it was to.

Once we had got to the Kings chambers there were knights on the door instead of guards which meant they were really worried about the king. They looked at us like they thought we were going to do something to him, but they seemed to work out that we had nothing on us that could and I think I even recognised one of them as someone I sometimes serve. Inside the Kings quarters Gaius, Merlin and Arthur were there. Arthur was sat a chair next to his father and looked like he had been crying, but he was trying to keep it together now. Merlin was stood against the wall like he was there but just really there for Arthur, because I didn't think he was the biggest fan of the king either. Gaius was stood over the king with his medical bag with him, so he could do what he could for the king, but it was almost like you could see the life slowly leave him.

"Sire, I have done all I can for now. I will check him again in the morning," Gaius said. "You should also think about getting some rest."

"I don't want to leave him," Arthur said with a stubborn tone to his voice.

"Arthur go, me and Carmen will look after the King during the night and we will get you if anything changes," Gwen said in a sweet voice. You could see in her eyes how upset she was for Arthur, and how much she wished to just comfort him, but she knew she couldn't. "Right Carmen?"

"Of course," I replied with a smile on his face. I wouldn't say it out loud but I don't think I could watch my parents slowly dying. I knew I had lost them but when I had found them they were already gone, and it wasn't slow and painful like I'm sure it was for the king.

Arthur looked between us to make sure we really meant what we said before thanking us and walking out of the room with Merlin behind him. The door was shut leaving us with the job of looking after the King who there was probably nothing we could do for. I just hoped he made it through the night; I would not like to be the one to wake Arthur up and tell him that his father was gone.

"So then what happened between you and Gwaine?" Gwen said walking around the bed and checking everything was alright for the King. When I didn't start to talk she added "you did promise to tell me."

"Okay, promise you won't talk until I completely finished with the story," I said, she nodded in agreement. "Well, when you left me and Gwaine on the night we found out about Lancelot's death the two of us kissed and I knew it wasn't the right time to do something like that and I wasn't sure what I thought, so I ran off. Then I got Kate to swap with me so I didn't have to see him every day, well no more than any other servant would. It worked for the few weeks until tonight when at the celebration he said we had to talk and I ignored his comment, but when I was walking back to my room he was there waiting for me outside the servant quarters. Then he made me feel bad about ignoring him so I agreed to talking to him but I didn't want to do it in public so he lead me to his room. After that we talked he said there was something between us and I couldn't ignore it, which is true. I tried to change his mind but I coming up with reasons why he was wrong but it didn't work and he kissed me. And well I agreed that I was happy with the two of us, but we aren't telling anyone, which means you can't." I finished summoning up what had happened.

"So you have decided to finally admit that you do like Gwaine, and that he likes you," Gwen said. "Also why didn't you tell me when he first kissed you?"

"Oh, it was just that it was just after Lancelot had died. It was one of the reasons why I ran away from him because even I knew it was the wrong time," I said thinking about would it had been better if I had just stayed when he had first kissed.

"Carmen, I want to know if something major happens to you, after all you're my best friend and I'm always here for you," she said walking over to me where I was and pulling me into a hug.

The rest of the night went the same, as nothing happened to the king he was the same as when Arthur had left. The night was quiet me and Gwen only talked occasionally trying to focus on how the king was doing. When we did it was about what we thought would happen if something happened to the king. Gwen was worried about what it would do to Arthur, and that thought was in the back of my head but I knew what happened to Arthur meant more to her than me. At points during the night I thought I would fall asleep, and when the door opened when it was the morning probably no more than about seven o'clock Arthur, Merlin and Gaius walked in making me more awake. Arthur sat back on the chair he had been on before.

"How is he?" Arthur asked looking between the two of us.

"Nothing has changed my lord," I said hoping it would make him feel better.

"Thank you Gwen, Carmen. You're welcome to go and get some sleep," he said looking at us before turning back to look at his father.

Me and Gwen both walked out the chambers as soon as it was said, as from what had been said during the night we were both really tired and just wanted to sleep. We walked in silence before she had to go in her own direction as she didn't live in the castle. She made me promise her that I would come over for dinner once everything with the king was over, and we hoped he was better. Although we both knew it didn't look promising.

When I was back to my room so I could get some sleep as I really needed it, I got pulled behind a pillar. I was about to scream when someone put a hand over my mouth. I turned around and saw that it was Gwaine who had decided to scare me, but it seemed to have amused him as he had a big grin on his face, the one that I had got quite used to seeing on his face.

"What are you doing Gwaine?" I asked looking around. "What if someone sees us?"

"Come on Carmen who is really doing to look behind a pillar," he said chuckling about how worried I was. "Any way I wanted to see where you were when Kate came in this morning I thought you'd changed your mind, but then your brother said he hadn't seen you either." It was really sweet about how he was worried about me.

"Sorry, Gwen volunteered to stay with the Kind all night and well she said I would do it too. And she's my closet friend so I was hardly going to say no," I replied, thinking about what I had spent last night doing made me realise how tired I was.

"So you've been up all night?" he asked, I nodded no longer being able to hold back a yawn. "Well I suppose I should let you go and get some sleep," he added on the end. I lent up and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips.

"I'll come see you later probably with your dinner," I said before walking back in the direction of my room. Luckily I didn't run into anyway on the way back. Thea saw me but it seemed like someone had told her that the Prince had told me to go to sleep, so she didn't try and make me do anything. When I was ready to go to sleep, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

It didn't seem like long before someone had come to wake me up. "Carmen, up now," I heard along with loud banging on the door, which meant it was Thea that had come to wake me up. She got seriously angry if you ignored her and tried to go back to sleep which I had done once when I had first come here.

I yawned and finally got out of bed realising that it was probably time for the knights to get their dinner which was why I was being woken up. I dressed in a purple dress and tied my hair up in a knot not wanting it to get in my way, it was getting rather long but I loved it and nothing would make me got my blonde wavy locks. Well probably until they got ridiculously long. As soon as I was in the main servant part I had a plate of food shoved at me by Thea, which was too nice to be my dinner which meant it was for Gwaine.

"You'll have to do the tidying of Sir Gwaine's room whilst you're in there, no one has done it today," Thea said with a smile on her face. She couldn't be serious, it normally took ages to tidy Gwaine's room and I wouldn't be getting any food until I was finished. What a joyful evening this would be, well suppose I'd have a reason to be in Gwaine's room without anyone getting the wrong idea. Which I hated to say was making it sound more like a good idea now.

Before I had been avoiding Gwaine I had given up knocking on Gwaine's door over the past year I had worked out what he did at different points of the day. When I walked in today, I was surprised that he was asleep I had never really seen him sleeping at this part of the day, unless he had come back from one of the quests he went on with the Prince and the other knights. I couldn't help but watch him as he slept, for someone that always tried to be so tough because he was a knight looked so sweet when he was sleeping.

"Princess, you're staring at me," he said making me jump; luckily it didn't make me drop his dinner, as that would be hard to explain to Thea.

"How do you know you have your eyes shut?" I asked trying to make me look seem freaky by staring at him whilst he slept.

"You know as well as I do that you can always feel when someone is staring at you," he replied with a smile on his face even though his eyes were still shut.

"Can you just get up please, I've got to tidy your room before I'm allowed my dinner and I can tell you now that I'm rather hungry. I don't think I've eaten anything all day," I replied. He opened his eyes looking over at me; I gave him my sweet innocent eyes that normally got me what I wanted with Percival and some of the other knights if tried hard enough.

"I'll get up but it will cost you something," he replied his smile turning into the smirk that was normally one his face.

"What?" I asked not really sure what he was actually going to ask for. He didn't say anything, but he did get out of his bed and start walking over to me. It barely noticed him getting out of bed because him without a shirt on was rather distracting. I got back into the thought line of what he was doing and noticed him wrapping his arms around my waist and bending down so his lips were at the same height as mine and not very face away from him. I should have guessed his cost would be something like that after all it was Gwaine.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and closed the gap between the two of us so that are lips touched. Since the first time I had kissed him nothing had changed I still felt butterflies in my stomach, and I had never felt anything like this before and thought that maybe I never would. This kiss was more passionate than the other two that we had and it was something that I could definitely get used too. When we bother pulled away we both had done it due to lack of oxygen.

"Now for that I will get out of bed," he said with a smirk on his face. His hand went to my hair, I wasn't sure what he was doing till I felt my hair come under, and him holding the long bit of thread that it had been done up with. "Your hair looks better done," he gave me a sweet kiss on the cheek and handed me that but of material, which I tied around my wrist so that it would always be there when I needed it. Apparently he really seemed to prefer my hair when it was done.

Gwaine sat down to eat his dinner while I started making his bed and tidying his room. We talked about random things that didn't really have a point. It was nice to get to know him better, although he never seemed to talk about himself before he became a knight, accept when he had saved Arthur's life at a tavern and helped Arthur and Merlin on a quest.

"You never talk about yourself before you came to Camelot," I said knowing I was being nosy, but was the point in being with someone if they wouldn't talk to you about anything.

"Nor do you," he replied looking up at me, he had a look on his face that said it would take a lot to get him to talk about his past.

"Ask anything I am an open book," I said knowing that I had nothing that I didn't mind telling him.

"What happened the night that Cenred's men got to your village?" he asked making me freeze. This wasn't something that I thought he would ask, as he knew from other people how emotional it got, but I knew I would have to tell him at some point and well at least now he was asking.

"Umm . . . well me and my mother were inside our house sorting out little things in it and my dad and Percival were outside working. Then they just came out of nowhere I tried to get out the back of my house, I thought my mother was behind me but when I turned around she was lying on the floor with an arrow through her chest," I said. Talking about it made me picture the image I was trying to get out of my head of my mother dead on the floor of the house I had lived in all my life. "I didn't want anyone to see me so I started running out the back of my house into the forest but I was seen apparently because I got an arrow slicing my side and another one landing in my thigh. Then when the glow of torches was gone I went back into my village and saw that my father was dead outside and I couldn't find Percival. I decided to head to main Camelot and well apparently I was losing too much blood because I collapsed and you found me," I finished tears streaming down my face.

"Carmen, come here," he said opening his arm for me and pulling me in a really tight hug. When he pulled away he ran his thumb over my cheek wiping away the tears on cheek. "I shouldn't have got you to tell me that I knew it would upset you. So you want to know mu history," I nodded my head.

"Unless you don't want to tell me then I won't make you," I smiled; I had stopped crying his hug had really made me feel better.

"No it's only fair you told me," he pulled me over to his bed and sat me down on it, but he stayed standing. "Umm . . . my father was a knight in King Caerleon's army and well once when he went to war he got killed, then my mother went to the King for some money he turned her away so we had nothing. The only thing I have left from him is this," he said taking the necklace that he always wore. I had never known what was actually on it or what they meant. He handed me the necklace that was tied by thick piece of thread, and it had a gold ring on it and was that a dragon scale, "it opens," he says when he saw me looking at it confused. When I opened it, it had a family crest on it which I assumed was his. I handed him the necklace back and he put it back on. "I must have been about fifteen at the time when it happened," he kept going. "After that I left not wanting to cost my mother any money that she didn't have, since then I vowed never to trust any noble again, well until I met Arthur. I'm sure you've heard the stories about how I'm good at getting into trouble so I'm sure you can guess what I did between back then and now."

His story was more upsetting than I thought it would be, I mean Merlin had told me the brief outline of Gwaine's story, but hearing it in full was really something, "I'm so sorry Gwaine," I said getting up and hugging him.

"Don't worry I moved on from it a long time and now one noble I don't have a problem with," he said pulling away and looking at me in the eyes. I lent up and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips, I was really happy that he had felt able to tell me something like this, especially as I knew that Gwaine wasn't the sort of person that was very open about his past.

"I have to go get some dinner," I said starting to realise that I was rather hungry and I hadn't eaten since yesterday. "Tomorrow at breakfast I will be here," I smiled at him and walked towards his door.

"Princess aren't you missing something?" he said with his normal cocky grin on his face only he could go from telling an upsetting story to being in a happy mood a few minutes later. Although I wasn't completely sure what he was talking about, I looked around didn't see anything, I had his plate and pile of clothes that needed to be washed by the door.

"Umm . . ." I started saying before he walked over to me and pulled me into a kiss. Was this what he seriously always thought about? I mean not that I was complaining about kissing him.

"You can go now," he said pulling away. He gave me a sweet smile which for Gwaine wasn't seen that often, but it was nice to see. He opened the door for me, I would have never have thought that something would happen between us when I had first met him a year ago. And I knew that I couldn't admit it to anyone least of all to him, but I think I was in love with him.

**Thank you for reading it and I hope you enjoyed. There's a box below that is just calling your name to write in and press the button that sends me the review =D**

**Skye-Casey x**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey,**

**I hope you enjoyed the last chapter and thank you to everyone that reviewed it, it means a lot to me. Anyway this is the last of episode 4, it's rather long. I've started to wonder how I write so much when for most the main things that happen in an episode Carmen has nothing to do with. **

**I hope you enjoy.**

When I got to the servant chambers Thea was the only one that seemed to be around, how late was it?

"You better have a good reason for being in that room for so long?" she snapped at me. "Everyone had gone now and you have to eat a cold dinner?" she looked over to the plate of stew that was on the table.

"What do expect have you seen how untidy Gwaine's room can be?" I replied, she gave me a look. "I'm sorry have you seen how untidy Sir Gwaine's room can be?" I emphasized the sir when I said it. I knew she didn't like it when I said any of the knight's names without Sir in front of, she even got annoyed when I didn't say sir in front of my brother's name, which I mean that was stupid as he is my brother.

"Eat it and go," she snapped taking all of the clothes and the plate that had I had brought back for Gwaine's room. It was good to know that I had put her into a happy mood; I knew talking to her like that would probably do wonders for me in the morning.

Kate was already asleep when I got back to our room; it seemed to be something that happened most nights. I don't think she even enjoyed working with my brother, as she always seemed to be finished so quickly. I had noticed from when I first began here that she didn't talk to the knights when we walked past them like I would. I think she may have seen it as a lack of respect that I didn't talk to them like all the other servants other than Merlin and Gwen did. Although the gossip about how Merlin would talk to Arthur was funny as everyone was always shocked when they heard the sort of things Merlin said to him, whereas me and Gwen would normally find it really funny.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow I didn't know why I was so tired I hadn't actually been awake that long since Arthur let me sleep after me and Gwen had been looking after his father all of last night.

I was woken up the next morning by a sweeter voice and shake then I normally did, "Carmen you have to wake up now," the voice said. Wait I knew that voice, why was Gwen waking me up? It made me sit up quite quickly as I knew if she had come to wake me up it must have been something important.

"Gwen, what's going on? What are you doing here?" I asked sitting up in my bed.

"Carmen, it's the king. He's dead," she said with tears in her eyes.

"Dead? Wait, I thought Gaius said he had at least two days left, which meant tomorrow not today," I asked confused, I mean Gaius was never wrong normally when it came to things like this.

"Come, and I'll tell you what happened," Gwen said walking over to my wardrobe and pulling out the light blue dress that she had given me. I quickly got changed and grabbed the thread so I could tie my hair up so you couldn't notice that I hadn't been able to brush. Whilst following Gwen out of the servants quarters I tied it up in a knot, with a few strands coming out of it because it hadn't been done very well as I hadn't been able to brush it.

We walked around for a while before she pulled me into a corner down a corridor that no one normally went down which meant what happened to the king must have been serious.

"What happened then?" I asked when we finally stopped.

"You know how much Arthur loves his father and he would do anything to stop him from dying?" she asked, I nodded my head. I think everyone knew how much Arthur loved his father, although he wouldn't always show it especially as he had kept Morgana being his half-sister a secret from him. "Promise you won't say anything until I have finished," I nodded my head agreeing with her again. "When I was accused of using sorcery, because Arthur said that he was in love with me, it turned out that there was actually someone doing sorcery. Well Arthur and Merlin went to find him to see if he could save his father's life and in the end it didn't work as now the King is dead and Arthurs hatred for magic is even worse than it used to be as it now killed both his parents," Gwen finished.

Now that was a lot of information to take in. I could understand why Arthur would turn to magic to save his father; I mean if I could go back I would have done exactly the same. Then again my parents would probably forgive me for using magic to get them back but Arthur's father, the King never would. He had spent a lot of his life hating it, but that wouldn't matter now he was gone.

"You do realise then you are in love with the man that is about to become king," I said smirking at Gwen trying to lighten the mood, as even though neither of us really liked the King he was still a man dead that shouldn't be.

"Carmen, you're not funny," Gwen replied letting out a light laugh. I knew it wasn't the time to be laughing but I wanted to cheer her up.

"I'm hilarious and you know it," I replied, this caused her to laugh it even more. "Okay, I should probably get back as I have work to do today and Thea will kill me if I'm late and Gwaine will not be happy if I'm late with his breakfast."

"And we wouldn't want to upset lover boy would we," Gwen said with a wink. I wasn't even going to give an answer to that so I walked off back into the servant quarters; as soon as I got in I was attacked.

"Eat," Thea said shoving a plate with bread on at. "Then go serve breakfast and then you can help get the Castle ready for the coronation of Prince Arthur." Apparently the death of the King had spread quickly and everyone was already starting to prepare for the coronation, one would think they would be sorting out some sort of funeral for the King, but apparently I was wrong. Maybe it would just be something small, and Arthur didn't want everyone to be there. I could understand that I wouldn't want people at my father's funeral especially with lots of people that didn't really care, but then again I never actual got the chance to give either of my parents one.

Once I had eaten my breakfast I quickly took Gwaine's plate and brought it to his room. I was shocked to see something I barely ever saw he was not asleep he was actually dressed in his knights outfit, which meant something was happening because I knew before he came here he wasn't used to fighting or wearing it and I knew he liked it that way.

"You're awake," I said sounding sarcastically shocked.

"Unfortunately," he replied not looking happy. "I was woken up early and told that last night the king had died, and rumours say that it was because of magic." Gossip really did travel quickly with the knights and not just the servants, although I did believe that no one in the Castle gossiped more than the servant. Sometimes it was good to hear things as nearly straight after they happened, but sometimes you didn't like to hear them, an example when Kate told everyone what had happened to me.

"I know Gwen woke me up and told me, I think she wanted me to hear it from being factually based and not just gossip," I said putting his plate on the table. "I sort of have to go like now as I need to help prepare for Arthur's coronation, so I will see you later tonight," I walked over to him and gave him a sweet kiss on the lips. When I pulled away his hand went to my hair, "please don't pull it down Gwen woke me up and wanted me to go quickly so I didn't have time to even brush it." I left the room before he had time to reply or go against me and pull in out.

Once I left the room I was ambushed by Tom telling me Thea thought I was taking too long give Gwaine his breakfast, as she knew that the knights had already all been woken up. Me and Tom had been given the job of making the room that the coronation was in look immaculate, which looked like it would take some time to do. It wasn't because the room was a mess, but there were little things that needed tidying and well it was rather big for just the two of us to do. The day went by slowly, we split up I started at the top of the room where the throne was and Tom started at the door hoping this would help us finish quicker. It didn't work very well it was dark and neither of us had finished more than half of our area, and the day was boring not being able to talk to each other.

I was happy when Kate walked in hoping that she would tell us we were finished for the day or anything about food as we hadn't had any since breakfast. "Thea says you need to go and help serve dinner," Kate said before turning around and walked straight back out the room.

Me and Tom looked at each other with smiles on our faces serving them dinner only meant that we would be getting it soon, I also had a smile as serving dinner meant hopefully Gwaine would be in his room, but Tom wasn't going to know about that one.

Once we got back to the servants area we were given plates, Thea looked even more stressed than she normally did, maybe the coronation was taking it out of her. She seemed to have been put in charge of making sure that everything was ready for the day, and I never thought I would say this but I actually felt sorry for her. I decided to go straight to Gwaine's room as I didn't really want to say anything that might provoke her into an argument as she looked stressed and she would probably make me lose my job if it happened.

When I went inside Gwaine's room, he was lying on his bed with his hands behind his bed, what I would do to be able to just lay in my bed. He was out of his armour and just wearing one of his lose grey tops, and I wouldn't lie he looked really good just wearing that. I sounded like a little girl hiding a crush, but at least I now actually had him.

"Food," I said putting the plate on the table, and walking to the other side of the room and started tidying it up. Arms came around my waist and I could feel his breath on my neck.

"You need to relax a bit Princess, you work too hard," he said kissing my neck; I felt goosebumps going all over my body. Why did he make me feel like this? I turned around, dropping the clothes that I had in my hands; I put my hands around his neck with a big smile on my face.

"Well, I have a job that I need to do and I get shouted out when I don't do it," I replied with the smile not leaving my face,

"Come and see me tonight when you won't have to worry about your job," he said, his face moving slowly closer to mine. I lent upwards so our lips would meet, I wasn't short I would have said I was average for a girl but he was still taller than me. The kiss started slow but it got more passionate as time went by.

"I knew it," someone said causing us to pull away. My head shot round and I saw all the main knights, Leon and Elyan, accept my brother which I was happy about. The voice belonged to Leon and neither of them looked surprised at the fact we were kissing.

"There was only one reason why Gwaine would be so happy on the day we all found out that the King was dead," Elyan said. They both had smiles on their faces, and well I felt seriously awkward especially as when I turned around Gwaine had a smile on his face too.

"Umm . . . I should go I have things that umm . . . I have to do," I said just wanting to get out of this awkward situation as I didn't deal with them very well. I picked up the clothes I dropped and walked towards the door.

"I would really appreciate if you didn't tell my brother what you saw," I said turning around before leaving. I needed Gwen badly; all I had to do was find her. I dropped Gwaine's clothes off where we normally cleaned them and walked towards to main exit of the castle thinking that trying Gwen's house would be the best place to start.

"Merlin," I called when I saw him a little bit in front of me, I was hoping he would stop even though he looked like he was seriously in a hurry.

"What can I do for you Carmen?" he asked with the sweet smile that he always seemed to have on his face.

"Do you happen to know where Gwen is?" I said, hoping that he did.

"Last time I saw her she was going home, so I would try there," he replied.

"Thank you," I said giving him a kiss on the cheek for the help he had given me. I walked as quickly as I could to Gwen's house I had forgotten to bring a cloak or anything and it was cold. I knocked on the door and waiting for her answer, which didn't take very long.

"Carmen, what are you doing here?" she asked looking a bit shocked that I was here, as when I normally came to visit her I would give her a bit of warning, so I knew she was defiantly free.

"Do I need a reason to come and visit my best friend?" I asked with my sweet innocent look on my face, which I had never actually used on Gwen before so I didn't know if it was going to work. It didn't really matter as I knew I would end up spilling my guts to her anyway.

"Carmen, you've either come for a gossip or something bad has happened," she said moving out the way so I could come into her house. I loved Gwen's house it reminded me so much of the house that I grew up, which was now probably ash on the ground.

"Do you want some food?" she asked seeing that she was making her dinner.

"That would be nice if you've got any to spare, I left the castle before I was given any," I replied realising how hungry I was and how I hadn't eaten anything but a piece of bread today.

"So are you going to tell me, why you came?" she asked putting a cup of tea and a plate of food in front of me. I thought about lying about what had really happened and making something else up, but she had learnt over the past year how I acted if I was lying and she was my best friend so I didn't want to lie to her.

"Well . . . I was in Gwaine's room, giving him dinner before you say anything, and I started tidying his room, then he came up behind me and we started kissing, then after that your brother and Leon walked in," she burst out laughing when I finished. "It isn't funny," I said starting to eat.

"Come on Carmen, even you have to admit that's a little bit funny. Can you imagine what would have happened if your brother was with them," she said giggling to herself.

"I'm relieved that my brother wasn't there it would have been horrible if he would have seen that," I replied. "Leon and Elyan said they wouldn't tell him, so I'm hoping they don't accidently tell them if they get drunk or something."

"I know my brother, he thinks of you as another sister he wouldn't do that to you, and as for them not being surprised I think the two of them had a bet going about how long it would take for something to happen between the two of you," Gwen said.

We spent the rest of night talking; luckily me and Gwaine barely came out during us talking, which I was happy about.

I felt someone shake me trying to get me to wake up, "Carmen you have to wake up like now," the voice said. I opened my eyes and thought I was back home, but I soon saw Gwen's face, realising I must have fallen asleep whilst we were talking.

"I'm late," I stated knowing from the light coming through the window that it wasn't this sunny when I normally woke up. Gwen nodded her head in agreement, "well this is going to be fun then."

I said my goodbyes to Gwen promising I would talk to her soon and she wanted to be updated on anything to do with me and Gwaine, but I didn't reply to that one. I walked as quickly as I could to the servant's area hoping I wasn't seen by anyone.

"Carmen, I lied to Thea about you, she thinks your ill," Tom said as soon as I got there. "So I would get in your bed quickly."

"What about Kate?" I asked knowing she would never let me get away with something like that.

"I'll talk to her and see what I can do but I think Thea wanted Gaius to see if you were alright. She wouldn't normally do something like that but it would seem the stress is really getting to her so she needs all the help she can get. Hurry," he said trying to usher me to my room.

"Thank you," I said turning around giving him a hug and kiss on the cheek. I didn't know why but Tom was such a good friend to me he was always there to help me.

When I got to my room, I got straight into my bed after taking my dress off and putting on what I normally wore to bed. It wasn't long afterwards when Gaius came in and Merlin wasn't far behind him. Although Merlin had a smile on his face that said he had realised that I had fallen asleep at Gwen's and there wasn't actually anything wrong with me, but he was going to leave me to tell Gaius about it.

"Carmen, what seems to be the problem?" he asked standing at the end of my bed.

"Nothing I'm honestly completely fine. All that happened was that I fell asleep at Gwen's house and I was really late, so Tom told Thea that I was ill not thinking that she's get you," I replied feeling bad that he had come all the way here when I didn't really need him and there were other people out there that did. "But Merlin could have told you all of that as he knew where I went last night," I gave Merlin a sweet smile. Merlin's facial expression completely changed once I told Gaius and he didn't look happy with Merlin.

"So there isn't any point behind me being here?" he stated looking at Merlin that said they would be talking about him not telling him the truth.

"Umm . . . Gaius, what are you going to tell Thea?" I asked sitting up in my bed, starting to worry that I was going to be in trouble although I thought and hoped that Gaius wouldn't do that to me.

"I'll tell her you were sick, but you'll be fine tomorrow first thing just like normal," Gaius replied walking out the door.

"Merlin, can you tell my brother I'm fine, I don't want him to start worry when there isn't actually anything wrong with me," I said before Merlin had time to follow Gaius out of the room. I gave him my sweet innocent look that had never not worked when I wanted something. I did think that maybe I should get him to tell Gwaine, as I didn't want Gwaine to do anything stupid and someone else finding out about the two of us.

"I can do that," he replied, before he left he turned back again. "I'll tell Gwaine too," he had a smirk on him face as he left. I didn't say anything back because I didn't want anyone to hear anything to do with me and Gwaine, as I didn't want gossip going around about the two of us.

Luckily no one came to visit me for the rest of the day, Merlin had kept his word and told my brother and Gwaine that I was fine, and Thea obviously believed Gaius as she didn't come and have a go at me. When Kate came back at the end of the normal working day, she didn't say anything but I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was seriously pissed that I had managed to get the day off even though I wasn't actually ill.

I managed to wake myself up the next morning without anyone having a go at me for being late, and I felt really relaxed and ready to go after spending yesterday in bed. It gave me time to have the time to brush my hair this morning, which was a change from not doing it yesterday or the day before thinking of it. I decided to tie half of it and keep the other half down, as then it would sort of not be in my way and it would stop Gwaine from pulling it down. I put on one of the dresses I had been given from Gwen when I had first came here it was light blue, and I loved it.

When I walked to the main servant quarters, Thea looked even more stressed than she had last time I had seen her which probably wasn't good. Arthur's coronation was in a dew days I believed which meant her stress hopefully wouldn't last that long.

"I see your better," she said when she saw me walk in. "Your behind in cleaning the throne room, so I suggest you hurry up." She gave me a plate for Gwaine, but nothing for me, which was a serious stress view. I'm sure I would live.

Today, when I went into Gwaine's room he was still asleep, which I was used to. Even if we were together I was not going to change traditions, so I put the plate on the table and walked to his curtains and opened them.

"Princess," he groaned when I turned round he had his arms over his eyes. "Not all of us spent yesterday in bed even when there was nothing wrong with them, some of us still had to work."

"You're a knight, what work do you do other than go on quests, banquets, to the tavern, train and guard things," I said thinking about the main things I had seen them do whilst I was here. "Oh, and I almost forgot moan at me when I wake you up," I added the last one making me smile. I walked over to him convinced I would be able to get him out of bed, so I did what I knew would get a response out of him. I leant over him and gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek, knowing that it would most likely get a response from him. Unfortunately it worked until he pulled me onto his bed, and made it so he was hovering over me.

"I'm offended to the idea that you think that's all I do," he said with his usual cocky grin on his face which meant he was just messing around with me.

"Okay name something else that you do?" I said my own smile on my face, knowing that there isn't really anything else that I had ever seen a knight do.

"Spend time with you," he said leaning down and kissing my on the neck, which still gave me the shivers that it had the first time. It was sort of scary how much I actually liked him, I knew he liked me back, but he would always be known of the flirt out of the knights. That meant that there would always be rumours that went round about him sleeping with other girls.

"Gwaine, I've got work to do," I said trying to keep my voice as normal as I could, but as he kept kissing my neck it was getting harder. He pulled away and looked into my eyes hopefully seeing that I was being serious.

Unfortunately I don't think he was paying attention to me as he leant forward and kissed me on the lips. It started sweet but when I started running my hands through his hair it got more passionate. I didn't want to but I knew I had be the sensible and stop before someone walked in because I had to finish the throne room, as I wasn't sure how close the coronation actually was.

He looked surprised when I pulled away, "Gwaine you know we need to stop, I have to go before someone realises how long I've been gone and starts looking for me." I gave him a sweet kiss on the lips; he looked at me in the eyes, and then rolled off of me so I could get up. "I'll come back later I promise," I kissed him on the cheek and walked out the room.

"You looked awfully flustered Carmen," someone said as soon as I was out of the door. I turned and saw Gwen stood there with a big smirk on her face. "It wouldn't have anything to do with a certain knight?"

"Gwen, stop it," I replied feeling my cheeks heating up. "What are you doing here?" she never normally came here just talk, as everyone listened we normally walked around the castle or went to her house. She only ever came here if there was something she had to tell me, and they were normally bad things, like when she said the king was dead.

"Oh, I was talking to Arthur earlier," she started. I smile came onto my face; if she could annoy me about Gwaine then I could annoy her about Arthur. "Carmen, stop it," she said her cheeks starting to heat.

"Okay, I'll stop. Why did you come and find me?" I asked trying to keep the smile from coming to my face.

"Arthur said that you should come to his coronation," she said. "He said he would come but he seems a bit stressed about everything from his father dying and him becoming the king tomorrow."

"Wait, what tomorrow?" I asked. Gwen nodded her head, looking at a bit shocked that I didn't know that it was tomorrow. What I was meant to be doing with helping to sort the castle out for it surely everything would be pretty much done by now. "Well that might be why Thea wanted me to do some work on getting the throne room ready for apparently tomorrow."

"You should do that then," she said. "I'll see you later or not tomorrow," she smiled before walking away. I wasn't sure what work she was doing anymore after all, all she had been doing for the past year was look after the king, and before then she had been Lady Morgana's hand maiden and well talking about her wasn't something advised in the castle. Then again Gwen was in love with Arthur and he was in love with her so I'm sure he'd find a job for her.

I walked to the throne room knowing that, that had been where I had been the last day I had been working on getting ready and when I walked in the room it had changed, it was a lot more colourful. Everything seemed to be ready so I wasn't exactly sure what I was meant to be doing in here, but I was sure there was something.

Well by the end of the day there had been a lot to do it, apparently it needed to be looked over again for being clean, which it had pretty much been but it had to be better than spending the day with Thea always down my back. And like normal when I got back to the servant's area I had a plate shoved at me for Gwaine for dinner. Could life ever change I felt like I did the same thing every day and on some days when I wasn't in the mood it was so boring.

"Dinner," I said putting the plate on his small table as soon as I walked into the room. I looked up and saw him sat on the chair by the table. "Have you actually done anything today?" I put my hand over my mouth realising how rude that actually say.

"Someone's in a good mood princess," he replied pulling at my hand so I was stood in front of where he was sat.

"Sorry today's been a long day, and I can't wait until Arthur's coronation is over, then I won't have to look into cleaning the throne room for a while," I replied putting a smile on my face which I wasn't sure whether it was real or not.

"You need to relax," he said standing up and pulling me so I was sat on his chair and he was stood behind me. He moved his hands so they were under my hair and on the shoulders and he slowly started massaging them, which felt amazing and apparently needed to relax more than I thought. I closed my eyes trying to let everything leave my mine other than how good his hands felt on my shoulders.

"Feel better now?" I heard him ask, I quickly opened my eyes not even realising that I had closed them.

"Yes," I smiled standing up and kissing him. "You should eat your dinner," I said walking around the room picking all of the stuff off of the floor. I could do this my whole life and I would never be able to work out how he managed to make so much mess in only one day.

"I hear you're going to Arthur's coronation," Gwaine said after we had been silent for a few minutes, whilst he was eating and I was tidying up. I turned around to answer and noticed that he had already finished eating. How did he do it so quickly, it even took me longer than that and I got less than he did?

"How did you even hear that? I only got told this morning and I've spent most my day in silence" I replied.

"You do realise I spend a big chunk of my day with Arthur, and he happens to mention things like this, after all your brother is a knight," he said with his cocky grin on his face, which he always wore when he had managed to outsmart me in an argument which was one of the things I hated.

"Whatever," I replied not feeling like arguing back. "Well you've finished eating, I'm hungry and want to sleep so I'm actually awake tomorrow, so I guess I will see you in the morning," I gave him a kiss on the cheek and left the room before we started talking again.

"Enjoying your evening Carmen," a male voice said from behind me a long with another male voice chuckling. I turned and I knew it would be Leon and Elyan commenting on mine and Gwaine's relationship. They were both stood there with big smiles on their faces, I was never going to live done the fact that they had seen us kissing. I decided to ignore the two of them and walk into the servant quarters; I grabbed the roll on my plate and walked up to my room. I ate it quickly and went to sleep, preparing myself for the idea that I had been invited to Arthur's coronation. It was strange how things I never thought would happened always seemed to here.

I woke myself up the next morning myself knowing that Arthur's coronation wasn't starting until this afternoon which meant I still had the beginning of the day to do my usually jobs. I decided to wear a light blue dress, I knew it wouldn't mean anything to anyone but it was one of the nicest ones I had and it would make me feel better knowing that I had tried to wear something nice on the day of the coronation. I brushed my hair and left it down, as I knew it may get in the way more like that but it looked nicer than when it was up and well it meant that Gwaine wouldn't be able to pull it down when I gave him breakfast.

The morning went by quickly and before I knew it I was stood in the throne room with Gwen on one said and Gaius on the other waiting for Arthur to come in so he could be crowned. There were people on either side of the room with a pathway in the middle with a red carpet on that Arthur would be walking into the room.

Everyone turned around when the throne room doors open and Arthur started walking down the room. The look on face said he couldn't be more nervous about the idea of becoming king but there was also a glint in his eyes that showed how upset he still was about his father. Geoffrey the Monmouth was waiting for him at the front of the room which had the throne at. When Arthur reached the top he knelt on the floor in front of him.

"Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the Peoples of Camelot according to their respective laws and customs?" Geoffrey asked, with a voice that was very dominating at getting people's attention.

Arthur nodded, "I solemnly promise so to do,"

"Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgements?" Geoffrey asked.

"I will."

Geoffrey picked the crown off of a red pillow it was and placed it on Arthur's head, "then by the sacred laws vested in me, I pronounce you Arthur, King of Camelot!" he finished.

Arthur stood up and turned to face the crowd, his people. His face now said that he was excited about how he was now going to be the king of Camelot. The people of the crowd also had smile on their faces knowing that Arthur would make a good king, as all the people loved him.

"Long live the King!"

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter and if you did please review, they make me very happy. It would also make me have a happy valentine's day, as my boyfriend is at university for it. **

**Skye-Casey x**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey,**

**Sorry this chapter is like a week late, but I was having trouble writing it as she would barely be in this episode. This is what I have of it for the moment, be warned it is probably the worst one I've written. **

**Anyway I hope you enjoy.**

The next few weeks went smoothly, and Arthur was doing really well at being king. Mine and Gwaine's relationship was going well, although I had the feeling that he wanted to tell everyone that we were together so we didn't have to spend all our time in deserted corridors, behind pillars or in his room. He knew that I didn't want to say anything to my brother about is as I didn't want to come between them and I knew my brother better than anyone and he would not react well to it. Also I had a feeling if Arthur or Thea were to find out there would be a high chance that I would lose my job as I did spend a lot of time in Gwaine's room, and even though at times it could be just when he was eating or I was tidying it. I really liked the time that we got to spend together and I wasn't ready for that to change. In the future I did plan on telling them, but I just didn't think now was the best time.

I had been planning on spending most of my day with Gwen, which didn't happen very often as it wasn't often that I managed to get anytime off of work, but everything was quiet at the moment and I had promised to be back on time for giving out dinner and I had already done breakfast. Gwaine was doing guard duty for something since early this morning so I hadn't had to give him breakfast and it meant that I couldn't spend the day with him, but Gwen was still my best friend and I enjoyed spending time with her and I hadn't in a while.

On the way to Gwen's house I saw Merlin walking out of the tavern, which didn't really seem like the sort of place he would go too. "Merlin," I said when I was about to walk past him. He turned to face me looking like he had been doing something that he shouldn't be. "I never really saw you as to be the type of person drinking in the tavern especially this early in the morning."

"Oh, well I had to drop something up for Gaius, so you're right it isn't really the place I would spend my time. I will leave that job for Gwaine," he replied with a smirk on his face. I hadn't said anything to Merlin about me and Gwaine, and Leon and Elyan had been the only ones that had seen us kissing. They had promised not tell anyone about it, as I don't think they wanted to do anything to cause problems between Gwaine and my brother, which I was grateful for as I didn't want to cause any problems between them. That being the main reason why I didn't want to tell my brother what was going on.

"You know the knights, I'm pretty sure they spend most their nights in there," I replied taking the subject off Gwaine specifically, but it was true the knights spent a lot of time there. When Gwaine spent the evening with me, I did wonder what he told the other knights as he used to spend most his evenings in there. They probably thought he was spending his time with a woman, actually not the same on for too long, as that was what he used to be like.

"I should go before I get in trouble with Arthur," Merlin said walking away with him. Now I was pretty sure that there was something wrong with him because I knew he didn't really care what Arthur said to him about time keeping, as he wasn't good at it.

"I'll probably see you later," I said before I kept walking down to Gwen's house.

"Hey," she said when she had opened the door for me, and let me walk past her.

"Hey, I just saw Merlin walking out the tavern," I said sitting down on the bench at her table. She seemed as shocked as I had been with the fact he was in it.

"I know Gaius tells Arthur that Merlin's in the tavern but that is normally just because he doesn't actually no where he is," Gwen replied. From the amount of time that Merlin seemed to disappear, I wouldn't be surprised if he spent most of his life in there.

I spent the rest of the day gossiping with Gwen; it was amazing how much gossip managed to go around the castle. Luckily me and Gwaine still weren't one of them, but it would come out at some point and I wouldn't be surprised if it was because someone saw the two of us kissing somewhere. I could probably get most the knights to stay quiet about it, but if it was a servant it would be a completely different story as they just loved gossip. They didn't care who got hurt in the process, I didn't spread the gossip, but I did listen to what was going on as I was normally really nosey.

"I should probably go," I said when I saw that it was getting dark out which meant I would be ambushed with Gwaine's dinner as soon as I got into the servant area. The two of us said goodbye to each other, before I slowly made my way back up to the castle. It was nice to just to be in silence, which I was used to back before I moved here, but now it never happened. There was always someone talking or something to do.

"Your late," I was greeted with when I got into the servant area. How I loved the sound of Thea's voice when she wanted to have a go at me.

"How am I late?" I snapped before I had even thought about what I was saying.

"You know we serve dinner as soon as it gets dark, and it's been dark for nearly half an hour. You can do the explaining to Sir Gwaine and apologies," she snapped back and giving me a plate. A smile came to face, every time someone called him sir it would make me laugh as if you were to think of what you would expect from a knight Gwaine would be the last person that sprang to mind.

"Sorry," I said when I walked into Gwaine's room, I didn't really care that I was late but I felt a little bit bad about it.

"Don't worry about it," he replied. He was lying on his bed with his hands behind his head; he had a smile on his face which meant that he was happy to see me.

"Have you actually done anything today, other than whatever it was you were doing this morning?" I said without even thinking again. Great now Thea had put me in a bad mood, when this was only time that I would get spend with Gwaine today.

"What's Thea done this time?" he asked knowing that she was normally always the one that put me into a snappy mood.

"She's annoyed that I was half an hour late getting back to give you your dinner," I replied. "Am I really that predictable?" I added on the end.

"She's the only one that normally puts you in a bad mood other than your brother if you argue with him, but when the two of you argue you are very loud," he said with a smirk on his face.

"And now you're taking the mick out of me," I said. Although I knew it was true when me and Percival argues we were really loud, but we didn't argue that often. I didn't want to imagine how loud the argument would be if he found out about me and Gwaine, who he saw as a brother. He held out his hand for me to go over to him, he pulled me down when I got there so I was lying next to him on the bed. When we talked this would normally be how we indeed up, unless I was trying to tidy his room. I rested my head on his chest, while he started running one of his hands through my hair like he seemed to really enjoy doing.

"Oh, you do realise that your dinners on the table," I said after we had been lying down for a while. It had been nice just lying there with him without thinking that we had to talk, because otherwise we'd be in an awkward silence, but me and Gwaine never seemed to end up in them. It didn't take long after me mentioning food that he got up and ate, I swear like all men always seemed to have food on their mind and they drop anything for it.

I spent most of my evening in Gwaine's room, but not too long that would mean someone would question where I had been. It was normally only Kate that questioned me on it, but that was because she would normally hear me going back into our room. I always told her that I had been with Gwen, and Gwen would agree to it because she knew I didn't want anyone knowing about me and Gwaine.

The next morning was going by like normal me tidying Gwaine's room while he was eating his breakfast. It wasn't until loud bells went off that we realised something wasn't right. I had only heard them a couple of time but I knew they were the warning bells. The few times that I had heard them go off had been when someone escaped from the dungeons, but I didn't think that there was anyone in there at the moment. I was sure by later on in the day gossip would have spread about what really happened.

"Shouldn't you go see what's going on?" I asked when Gwaine stopped for a moment before he went back to eating his breakfast. I swear it would take something seriously major to pull him away from his food.

"Carmen, calm," he said. "If it's something important someone will come and get me, whatever has happened had to get seen by Arthur first and it isn't something majorly important as there isn't anyone in the dungeons at the moment."

It was true I wasn't sure why I was so bothered about it; normally I just assumed that the worst had happen. This was only because if something happened I would assume that more than one person would go see what was wrong, but I had been proven wrong over time.

There was a knock on the door which probably meant it was something bad if they needed to knights to come together. It would probably just be Gwaine, Elyan, Leon and my brother that got called as they were always the ones that went with Arthur it didn't tend to matter what happened it was always them four, Arthur and Merlin. Sometimes I did wonder why Arthur bought Merlin with him, other than for someone to cook them stuff whilst they were gone, but I mean Merlin couldn't handle a sword and he would always be there in his normal clothes which meant he was more likely to get hurt as the knights had their armour.

Leon walked in the room, "Arthur wants us," he said looking at Gwaine. He then turned to me and a smirk came onto his face.

"Don't even think about saying anything," I snapped taking the plate of the table and walking out the room.

"You enjoy annoying her about the two of us, don't you?" I heard Gwaine ask once I was out. Leon didn't say anything but I could hear the two of them. I knew all the jokes about the two of us didn't bother Gwaine; it only seemed to be me. Plus as Leon and Elyan knew they only bothered me, it was always me that they would make comments too.

I decided to ignore the comment and kept going. I had a feeling the next few days were going to be very dull, if the warning bell had gone it probably meant that they were about to go on a quest somewhere, probably whatever had been stolen. When I knew the three of them had left I went back into Gwaine's room so I could clean it up, I really didn't know how he made so much mess. It wasn't that long after he left that he came back.

"So what quest are you going on now?" I asked when I heard the door shut.

"To destroy a dragons egg," he seemed surprised that, that was what they were actually about to do,

"Are you serious?" I asked thinking that there weren't any left. He nodded his head to say there was. "This just gets weirder and weirder."

**Hope you enjoyed. I know this chapter really bad, but please still do review it means a lot to me and I'll try and update on time next week. **

**Skye-Casey x**


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